The battle for Ask Central took a twist last week after the owners of rival pizza chain PizzaExpress threatened to trump the Restaurant Group's offer with a £223m bid.
Ask announced that it had received a proposal for a 220p-per-share offer from TDR Capital and Capricorn Ventures International subject to the completion of debt financing. The bid is expected to be finalised within two weeks.
The board of Ask, including chief executive Adam Kaye and brother Samuel Kaye, continue to recommend the bid from the Restaurant Group (formerly City Centre Restaurants) but admitted TDR's offer would be "extremely attractive".
So far the Restaurant Group has received acceptances from 47.3% of Ask's shareholders for its £168m cash-and-share deal.
TDR Capital, which also owns Nando's, bought PizzaExpress through its acquisition vehicle GondolaExpress in July 2003 for £277.8m.