Gaucho Grill set to return to the stock market

Gaucho Grill Restaurants is planning a £100m return to the London stock market or a sale – a year after it was acquired by private equity firm Phoenix Equity Partners.

The Argentinean-style steakhouse chain, which has 10 restaurants in the UK and one in the Netherlands, has hired financial advisers Hawkpoint to review its options.

"Gaucho is looking at a number of strategic options and an IPO (initial public offering) is one of them," a spokeswoman told Reuters today.

The group was taken private by founder Zeev Godik in 2002 after a period of poor trading.

In 2005, Barclays led a £23.5m buyout before last year’s Phoenix Equity Partners secondary buyout deal, led by Godik and worth £55m.

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By Daniel Thomas

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