Sexy Fish: Billionaire Richard Caring’s restaurant empire reveals losses
Losses have been revealed for part of billionaire Richard Caring’s high-end restaurant empire, which includes the likes of Sexy Fish, as talks over a potential £1bn sale continue.
The 2023 results for Caprice Holding, which also owns Scott’s and Bacchanalia, have only just been published, eight months after the Companies House deadline.
The documents show that the portion of the so-called King of Mayfair’s empire fell to a pre-tax loss of £5.9m in the year, having posted a profit of £1.1m in 2022.
However Caprice Holding’s revenue increased over the same period from £74.3m to £97m.
Its accounts for 2024 are due to be filed by the end of September.
Sexy Fish owner battles costs hikes
A statement signed off by the board said: “Trading surpassed the prior period with previous site openings yielding their first full year results along with the opening of Sexy Fish in Manchester.
“Whilst inflationary pressures reduced consumer confidence in contracts to the bounce-back highs of the prior post-pandemic period, the company’s position provided compelling for our customers which contributed to another impressive year.
“This is notable considering the cost headwinds faced in the first half of the year from energy prices and knock on costs from the supply chain and interest rate hikes.”
In the year, the owner of Sexy Fish increased its headcount from 822 to 1,078.
Talks over £1bn sale continue
The results come after the FT reported last week that Richard Caring is in advanced talks to sell a large portion of his UK hospitality empire to an entity controlled by the powerful Abu Dhabi royal Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan.
The deal would involve the Ivy restaurants chain and London private members’ club Annabel’s.
According to the FT, the sale could be worth more than £1bn.
The potential deal was first reported at the end of 2023 and again in September 2024 but since then there has been no update from the company or its backers.
Caring owns up to a 50 per cent stake in the business behind The Ivy chain while other shareholders include the former Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin-Jaber al-Thani.
In April, City AM reported that the group behind restaurant chain The Ivy shed 300 jobs in 2023.
The heavily delayed results showed that The Ivy’s owner cut its headcount from 5,962 to 5,663 in the year while its pre-tax profit climbed from £29m to £37.6m.
They also revealed that its revenue increased from £302.9m to £314.7m over the same period.