Gaucho Grill, the premium Argentinian steakhouse concept, has unveiled plans to return to the stock market, just a year after it was acquired by Phoenix Equity Partners.
The company, led by founder and chief executive Zeev Godik, has hired Hawkpoint to advise it on its proposed IPO, which is expected to give the group a market capitalisation of around £100m.
The group plans to raise £50m through the listing, which is expected to take place early next month, while Phoenix is expected to sell its 45% holding in the company for around £25m.
Godik said: “Over the past five years we have transformed the business creating a successful single brand, offering a high-quality dining experience. During this time, we have delivered impressive growth in sales and profits and now have a clearly defined strategy to continue to deliver growth.
“We are committed to developing the Gaucho brand within the UK. A flotation will help us to raise our profile, as well as facilitate the recruitment and retention of management and key employees.”
The company was listed on the stock market before Godik led a £23m buyout backed by Barclays in January 2005.
A secondary refinancing followed in August 2006 with Phoenix, which with management owns 90% of the business. The deal valued the business at £55m – or almost £8m a restaurant at the time.
Gaucho, based in West London, currently operates 10 restaurants in the UK, having opened two restaurants this year – at Richmond and at Tower Bridge. It also operates a further restaurant in Amsterdam.
It plans to open another three restaurants during 2008, including a site at the o2 development, which is expected to open in February.
The group said there was potential to support up to a further 40 Gaucho restaurants in the UK.
It reported a 41.4% increase in revenue to £15.7m for the six months to 30 June 2007, with ebitda up 44% to £3.6m and operating profit up 41.2% to £2.4m.
It said that for the 52 weeks to 30 June, average per restaurant cash return on capital invested was 64%.
The group is chaired by Stephen Gee, who is also non-executive chairman of Carluccio’s, the Aim-listed Italian restaurant-and-shop concept.
