Investors bring plans to take Individual Restaurant Group private to the boil
Written on May 31, 2011 by Douglas R
Piccolino 300
A CONSORTIUM including Iceland founder Malcolm Walker has taken a big step forward in gaining full control of Piccolino’s owner Individual Restaurant Company after securing 75% of the share capital.
W2D2 announced in April that it intended to delist the company from the Alternative Investment Market. At that stage it had 53.63% of IRC’s shares and made an all-cash offer of 9.5p per IRC share, 1p higher than the closing price prior to the announcement.
By the close of the initial offer period, 1pm on Wednesday, it had increased its stake to 69.51% and since then increased its holdings to 75.77%.
This means that W2D2 will now begin the process of delisting from AIM, which IRC joined in 2006 after a reverse takeover of Bank Restaurant Group.
W2D2 is a vehicle named after its four investors – IRC chief executive, Steven Walker, Malcolm Walker , Iceland’s finance director Tarsem Dhaliwal and Paul Dawes.
IRC, which is holding its annual general meeting today, said sales growth seen at the start of the year has continued in recent weeks. It operates 22 Piccolino and 11 Bar and Grill restaurants.
Robert Breare, chairman of IRC, said: “As reported in April, the group experienced like for like sales growth in each of the first three months of 2011.
“Encouragingly all of this growth came from increased customer numbers and we have continued to experience like for like sales growth in the same way, over the six week period ended May 15.”
However he warned that rising costs, such as alcohol duty, beef and dairy prices, have “significantly eroded” the improvement in sales.
He added: “The ability of the group to absorb most, if not all, of these inflationary pressures will depend upon the buoyancy of consumer spending going forward.”
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