Pizza Express owner Wheel Topco has made a rival bid approach to Restaurant Group (LON: RTN), which has previously agreed a 65p/share bid from US private equity firm Apollo Global Management. This valued the Wagamama owner at £506m or £701m including debt.
Restaurant Group says that it will provide due diligence information to Wheel Topco. The group owns the Wagamama and Brunning & Price chains. No potential bid level has been suggested by Wheel Topco and no there is no guarantee that it will make a bid. The share price rose 2.41% to 68.1p.
Restaurant Group agreed to the Apollo Global bid because the current economic uncertainty made the certain value provided by the bid attractive. The bid multiple for 2023 is 33, falling to 22 in 2024. The Apollo Global bid is more than double the share price at the beginning of the year.
Restaurant Group has previously agreed the sale of the Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurant chains to Big Table Group for £1m. Restaurants Group is also contributing £7.5m to Big Table Group depending on working capital adjustments.
