LENDERS WIN CONTROL OF CHEZ GERARD July 20, 2009 THE CHEZ Gerard and Bertorelli restaurant chains fell under the control of bankers yesterday. Silverfleet Capital, the private equity company, sold the chains’ owner Paramount Restaurants to its bankers, RBS, HSBC, Barclays and Sankaty for an undisclosed sum. The deal is expected to cut Paramount’s debts by around half to £65m.
Oh I do like to be beside the seaside (with billionaires) July 19, 2009 IT’S mid-morning, and having got a crack-of-dawn BA flight from London City Airport, I am now in a helicopter flying from Nice to Monte Carlo. Out of the window, the warm sunshine and blue sea provide a stunning backdrop to the hotels and villas carved out of the white rocks. As a helicopter virgin I [...]
McDonald’s to swap London for Geneva July 12, 2009 FAST food giant McDonald’s yesterday confirmed it was joining the growing list of multinational companies to have quit the UK and relocate their European headquarters. The US chain, which runs 1,200 restaurants in Britain, plans to move from its current headquarters in East Finchley, north London, to Geneva by the end of the year. McDonald’s [...]
Hedgie Degorce calls up old friends to set up a fund at Lansdowne’s offices July 12, 2009 PATRICK Degorce, a former fund manager at US banking giant Merrill Lynch, is launching a new fund based in the Mayfair offices of hedge fund powerhouse Lansdowne Partners. Degorce, 40, is being allowed to set up shop with a small team at the firm after contacting Stuart Roden and Peter Davies, former colleagues of his [...]
Individual Restaurant Co beats share sale targets July 9, 2009 INDIVIDUAL Restaurant Company, the group behind the Restaurant Bar and Grill and Piccolino chains, yesterday said it has beaten its target of raising £2.1m with a share sale. The firm took the opportunity to place a further 3,950,216 shares – the 10 per cent maximum amount it was granted at its recent annual meeting – [...]
SLICE OF OLD-BOY STYLE HITS CITY FINE WINING AND DINING CIRCUIT July 8, 2009 NOT so long ago, City types were busy bemoaning the lack of decent restaurants on their patch. But now, just weeks after the Galvin brothers announced they were opening a new pad near Spitalfields market, I hear there’s a new eatery coming to town, courtesy of Simon Parker Bowles, former brother-in-law to Camilla, Duchess of [...]
OUT OF OFFICE BY ZOE STRIMPEL July 8, 2009 ARCADIA AT DUKE OF YORK’S THEATRETom Stoppard’s unforgettable 1993 drama wittily looks at life, mathematics and, well, everything. Set in a country house in both 1809-11 and 1989, it consistently and wittily catches at two ends of the same stick, be it Fermat’s Theorem or a paperweight. David Leveaux’s production is right on the money [...]
JACKSON CITY RACE INCENTIVE SCRAPPED July 7, 2009 THE fallout continues over tickets from the late Michael Jackson’s planned London tour – and this time, it has hit the City. Standard Chartered, those with elephant-like memories may recall, offered runners in their Great City Race next week the chance to see the King of Pop at the O2 Arena on 6 August, as [...]
Arabian ark an eccentric but brilliant getaway July 5, 2009 TWO cheetah brothers bask in the sunshine, panting as they stretch their lean bodies gracefully in the heat. Giraffes munch lazily on foliage while nearby a sand gazelle with her young jumps among the trees. The only sound to pierce the silence is the peacock’s call. I am lost in the scene until my driver [...]
Hell’s kitchen for Ramsay’s restaurants July 2, 2009 CELEBRITY chef Gordon Ramsay has found himself in hot water after his UK restaurants suffered a near 90 per cent drop in profits, forcing the foul-mouthed chef to pump his own money into the business. Gordon Ramsay Holdings filed accounts showing that the TV chef and Chris Hutcheson, his father-in-law and business partner, were forced [...]