Thu 19th May 2016 - Former PizzaExpress owner eyes bid for The Restaurant Group Former PizzaExpress owner eyes bid for The Restaurant Group: The former owner of PizzaExpress is weighing up a takeover bid for The Restaurant Group. Private equity firm Cinven is in the early stages of evaluating an approach to the board of The Restaurant Group, which has seen its shares plunge by more than half during the past 12 months. Cinven, which sold PizzaExpress to a Chinese investor two years ago, is not the only private equity firm circling The Restaurant Group, which operates brands including Frankie & Benny’s, Chiquito and Coast to Coast. City sources said TA Associates and other parties had been running the numbers on a possible bid, although it was unclear whether a formal approach would materialise, reports Sky News. The Restaurant Group has endured a torrid few months, announcing the departure of its long-serving finance director and a third profit warning in quick succession less than a fortnight ago. The company has warned investors this year’s profits are to be no higher than £80m. Shares in The Restaurant Group were trading at about 327p on Thursday, giving the company a market capitalisation of just over £630m. It was unclear what level of takeover premium would be required to persuade the company’s big investors to sell, but one source suggested an offer would have to be pitched above 500p to be credible. Another insider said it was far from certain Cinven’s interest would result in a firm offer being made for Restaurant Group. Cinven is also a former owner of the Byron, Ask and Zizzi restaurant chains through Gondola Holdings, their one-time parent company, before the latter two were sold to another private equity investor, Bridgepoint. Confidence in the pace of the consumer spending recovery during the past five years has buoyed confidence in the UK’s casual dining sector, with a flurry of deals involving chains such as Cote and TGI Friday’s taking place. A person close to The Restaurant Group said Cinven’s operational expertise in the restaurant industry meant there could be considerable scope to improve its performance. “The company’s reputation has been badly damaged in recent months, made worse by the poor advice of its financial public relations advisers,” the source said. Alongside last month’s profit warning, The Restaurant Group chief executive Danny Breithaupt announced a strategic review, the results of which would be announced in August. “We are focused in the short term on the operational levers that will improve our trading performance,” he said. “In the medium term, we are reviewing the core strategic assumptions that differentiate our operating model to ensure that we optimise returns for shareholders.”