CENTURY-OLD RESTAURANT EMPIRE WITH HIGH-END VENUES IN GLASGOW AND EDINBURGH NEARING £1 BILLION SALE

Hospitality tycoon and billionaire Richard Caring is closing on a roughly £1 billion sale of the restaurant group behind The Ivy.

London-based investment firm Si Advisors is reportedly nearing a deal to buy the Ivy Collection, which runs dozens of sites across the UK including prestigious spots in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

The venues - first launched in London in 1917 - built a reputation for attracting celebrities to high-end dining establishments before Caring took over and used the blueprint across the UK and beyond.

Mr Caring owns a controlling stake in the company, which runs the original Ivy in West London, its spin-off chain restaurants and Ivy Asia sites, alongside Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, the former prime minister of Qatar.

In 2019, Caring sold a 25% stake in Caprice Holdings to Hamad in a deal reportedly worth £200m.

The pair put the business up for auction at the start of the year, with the Sunday Times first reporting they had set a £1 billion valuation.

Both are expected to sell their stakes as part of the deal.

However, the deal will not include Caprice Holdings, Mr Caring’s group of other restaurants including London’s Scott’s, Sexy Fish and J Sheekey. Mr Caring - dubbed ‘the king of Mayfair’ - also owns London clubs including Annabel’s and Mark’s Club.

Mr Caring and the Ivy Collection have not commented on the reports.

The Ivy was founded in Covent Garden in central London in 1917 by Abel Giandolini and Mario Gallati, before the pair then opened popular restaurant Le Caprice.

Currently, The Ivy Collection includes two Scottish eateries: The Ivy On The Square in Edinburgh and The Ivy Buchanan Street in Glasgow which opened in 2017 and 2019 respectively.

In 2005, Mr Caring bought the Caprice Holdings group, before spinning off the Ivy Collection arm to rapidly expand the restaurant brand.

Most recent Companies House accounts showed the company delivered earnings of £54.8 million and turnover of almost £303 million for the year to January 2023.

2024-09-06T14:55:54Z dg43tfdfdgfd