TRG confirms takeover counterbid from Pizza Express owner

The Restaurant Group has confirmed this morning (26 October) that it has received a request from Wheel Topco, the owner of Pizza Express, to evaluate a possible takeover offer for the company. 

However, TRG said that no written or verbal indicative proposal relating to a possible offer – including as to terms, price or form of consideration – has been made to its board by Wheel Topco.

This comes after Sky News reported yesterday (25 October) that the Pizza Express owner is considering a surprise move to gatecrash a takeover of TRG, the London-listed company which owns Wagamama. 

At the time, Sky News learnt that Wheel Topco was at the preliminary stages of evaluating whether to make a rival offer to TRG, which earlier this month agreed to be bought by Apollo Global Management for just over £500m. 

Pizza Express is controlled by a group of debt funds including Bain Capital Credit and Cyrus Capital Partners, which took ownership in 2020. 

According to analysts, there is logic in Wheel Topco’s interest in TRG, as one reported that there would be “substantial cost synergies” generated by bringing the two chains under a single holding company. 

In addition, Allan Leighton, the chairman of Pizza Express, was previously the chair of Wagamama and engineered its sale to TRG in 2018. He then spent a brief period on TRG’s board.

Last month, TRG announced the sale of Chiquito’s and Frankie and Benny’s to The Big Table Group, which was backed by the buyout firm Epiris and added the two brands to a portfolio which includes Amalfi, Banana Tree, Bella Italia, Cafe Rouge and Las Iguanas.

Pizza Express was contacted for a comment.