The Restaurant Group agreed to offload its loss-making leisure unit, which includes brands like Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito. The sale to Banana Tree operator Big Table Group comes just days after Restaurant Group Chairman Ken Hanna said he’ll step down next year for personal reasons, following months of pressure from activist investors.
(Bloomberg) — The Restaurant Group agreed to offload its loss-making leisure unit, which includes brands like Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito. The sale to Banana Tree operator Big Table Group comes just days after Restaurant Group Chairman Ken Hanna said he’ll step down next year for personal reasons, following months of pressure from activist investors.
Key Business News
The Restaurant Group Plc: The Wagamama owner will pay a cash contribution of £7.5 million to Big Table Group, which will pay a solitary £1 for the leisure business when the deal completes later this year.
Heathrow Airport: Europe’s largest travel hub handled 7.55 million passengers in August, up 25% compared with the same period last year.
- A pair of sunglasses was sold “every two minutes,” the airport said, while Pret A Manger sold almost one million sandwiches this summer
AstraZeneca Plc: The drugmaker’s bestseller Tagrisso delayed the worsening of advanced lung cancer longer when combined with chemotherapy, according to a study that may help solidify its place in treatment of the disease.
Vistry Group Plc: The company plans to solely focus on building homes for affordable housing providers and rental landlords in the UK as private sales struggle in the face of higher borrowing costs.
What’s Next?
Tuesday will bring updates from Primark owner Associated British Foods Plc, tonic maker Fevertree Drinks Plc and Keywords Studios Plc — a provider of creative services to the video games industry.
Keywords Studios’ results will be scanned for more clues on the state of the sector after the Dublin-based company earlier this year flagged that publishers had become more cautious on new investments.
The Big Read
What do a Bugatti supercar, a Hilton hotel and the Chagos Islands have in common? They all feature on a long and increasingly bizarre list of stories behind the financial crisis sweeping Britain’s local authorities, just some of the extraordinary reasons parts of Britain are going bust. Read more here.
Key Headlines
- Softbank’s Arm Is Said to Consider Raising IPO Price Range
- Kingspan Said to Make Rebuffed Proposal to Carlisle
- Sunak Risks Tory Backlash Against Trimming Welfare to Cut Taxes
For a more considered take on the UK’s economic and financial news, sign up to Money Distilled with John Stepek.
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