Hugh Osmond, the high-profile sector investor who founded Punch Taverns and floated PizzaExpress, is lining up a bid for restaurant chain Strada, according to the Sunday Times.
The newspaper reports that his Sun Capital Partners vehicle is one of a number of private equity firms looking to buy the business, along with the likes of pizza restaurant group Prezzo.
M&C has previously reported that Capricorn Ventures, the private equity backer of Nando’s, GBK and Wahaca, has run the role over the rump of the Strada estate, which is currently on the market with a price tag of c£40m. Zolfo Cooper is advising on the Strada auction.
Serial sector investors Richard Caring and Luke Johnson are also understood to have shown an interest in the package.
Last September Osmond said he planned to invest in the leisure sector in 2014. He told M&C Report at the time that he was looking to invest “as much as it takes” to grow a small number of “triple-A” leisure operators into national brands.
“Ideally [I’d ] look for one or more concepts that have proven themselves to a degree. It could be small at the moment, or medium sized, that we could expand across the country,” he told M&C.
