Paramount Restaurants to restructure after private equity pull-out

Paramount Restaurants has announced it will be restructuring its business, after private equity owner Silverfleet Capital sold its entire interest in the company to the business’ existing lenders.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC, Barclays and Sankaty bought Silverfleet’s interest for an undisclosed sum, thought to be a nominal fee. As part of deal, the banks have written off an estimated £55m of the company’s £120m total debt and taken equity in return.
 
The deal, which is part of a wider financial restructure, includes funding for the new management team to implement a programme to re-engineer the business – which includes the Chez Gerard, Caffè Uno, Bertorelli, and Brasserie Gerard brands.

Paramount’s chief executive Mark Phillips said: “The financial restructuring means that the new senior management team, who have been appointed over the past 12 months, can now focus all their efforts on the upgrade programme which they commenced last year.”

He added: “Paramount is a great business with great brands, great assets and great people. The restructuring, together with the injection of new money, will provide stability for the group and enable it to continue to invest in its brands and assets. This is a business with real potential, and the restructuring gives us the opportunity to fulfil this potential.”

Mark Sheehan, managing director of Coffer Corporate Leisure said: “This is another example of an over-leveraged private equity-backed leisure business which is fundamentally sound. Along with Novus and Barracuda Group [which had similar experiences] a reduction in debt will help the business survive and grow in the long term.”

The upgrade programme includes: the refurbishment of the London estate; targeted site/brand repositioning and implementation of further systems and processes to improve controls and profitability.


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By Emily Manson

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