Richard Caring and fellow shareholders are reportedly close to selling the Ivy chain of restaurants for £1bn to a little-known private equity group.
The chain of more than 40 restaurants in the UK is poised to be bought by Si Advisers within weeks, according to Sky News.
Si Advisers is controlled by Hamza Ben Abderahmen, a director of the health and safety training provider Boyd Group, and Ameel Somani, who is described as “a private equity investor and keen supporter of the arts”.
Somani serves on a number of boards and previously worked for Helios Investment Partners, a private equity firm that invested in Africa.
The reported deal, which would end Caring’s relationship with the chain after almost 20 years, would not include the high-profile entrepreneur’s other restaurants, including Scott’s, Sexy Fish and J Sheekey, or clubs such as Annabel’s and Mark’s Club.
According to Sky, Caring is expected to offload close to all of his stake in the Ivy Collection, but it was not immediately clear if other brands in the restaurant group, which include three Harry’s outlets, Granary Square Brasserie in London’s King’s Cross and the Brasserie of Light in Selfridges’ London department store, would be included in the sale to Si.
Caring owns up to a 50% stake in Troia (UK) Restaurants, which controls the Ivy chain, according to documents filed at Companies House; other shareholders include former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin-Jaber al-Thani.
Troia, which includes several other UK restaurants as well as the Ivy, increased sales by more than 50% to £303m in the year to January 2022, as it recovered after the pandemic. Pre-tax profits rose to £29m from £20m a year before including more than £1m from the original Ivy outlet on West Street in Covent Garden alone. It has not filed accounts at Companies House this year.
Caring, who made his money as a supplier of clothing to high-street stores and secret shareholder in the now collapsed BHS department store chain alongside Sir Philip Green, bought The Ivy, a popular celebrity haunt founded in 1917, and five other famous London restaurants including Le Caprice, J Sheekey, Daphne’s, Bam-Bou and Pasha for an estimated £20m in 2005.
He has since expanded the Ivy into a national chain of casual dining restaurants including eight Ivy Asia outposts. He also developed the Ivy Club above the original restaurant site in London’s theatreland.
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In 2019, Caring sold a 25% stake in Caprice Holdings, the group which then included the Ivy, to al-Thani in a deal reportedly worth £200m.
The Ivy chain has attracted controversy over its use of the service charge to pay workers. Caring’s exit from the group comes just weeks before rules on the distribution of tips and the service charge to workers changes – including a stipulation that 100% of the service charge must go to those serving in the restaurant and must be proven to be allocated amongst staff fairly.
Caring declined to comment. Si Advisers did not respond to a request for comment.