A Japan-based global food company has unveiled a £93.4 million takeover deal for the London-founded restaurants business behind The Real Greek and Franco Manca brands.
A 14.15p per share cash offer has been made for Fulham Shore, which has 97 branches, notched up record sales of around £100 million in the year to March, and was set up by veteran restaurateur David Page.
The offer for the 11-year-old firm, named after Page’s father’s love of Fulham FC, represents a premium of approximately 34.8% from the share closing price yesterday. As a just over 13% shareholder of the business Page is in line for around £11.8 million from the sale.
The agreed proposal comes from Great Sea Kitchens, a newly-incorporated company set up on behalf of dining giant Toridoll which has 5,500 stores and is behind brands such as Marugame Udon. It is working with private equity firm Capdesia.
The bidder thinks Fulham Shore offers authentic, high-quality food and drinks at affordable prices and recognises the significant opportunity to expand the business in the UK, internationally, and through product sales in shops.
Page, executive chairman of Fulham Shore, said: “Whilst we remain excited about the prospects for the business on a standalone basis, we have been in discussions with both Toridoll and Capdesia and received a proposal that we believe is compelling for all of our stakeholders.”
He added that directors are unanimously recommending the acquisition to shareholders. Singer Capital Markets and Rothschild are advising Fulham Shore and Peel Hunt is acting for the buyer.
Details of the proposal came on the same day that Fulham Shore said the trading momentum and absence of Covid closure periods compared to the last two financial years as well as new store expansion “has driven a significant increase in revenue” to around £100 million for the year to March 26.
The AIM-listed company said: “In general, transport hub and tourist locations are performing strongly while restaurants near offices have not yet fully returned to pre-pandemic trading levels.”
Takaya Awata, chief executive of of Toridoll said together with the “strength of these [Fulham Shore] brands and our partnership with restaurant sector specialist fund Capdesia, we have the opportunity to leverage our combined expertise and significant resources to accelerate their growth even further”.
