Pelican chain is left on the shelf

MAJOR rivals have shunned the chance to buy Whitbread's Pelican restaurants - including Cafe Rouge - which were put up for sale last month.

The group of 154 restaurants, which also includes Bella Pasta, Abbaye and Mamma Amalfi, has been officially on the market for only a month. But it has been clear since the summer that Whitbread would offload its weakest operations, making it inevitable that the Pelican restaurants would go.

Several leading restaurant chains, including stock market companies Ask Central and City Centre Restaurants, have turned down the chance to look at the Whitbread brands.

One industry source said: 'The brands have been looking tired and rundown for some time and the sites just aren't big enough to attract restaurant owners or even pub chains.'

The restaurants now up for sale include include 75 Cafe Rouge and 65 Bella Pasta sites. The whole Pelican operation has a book value of about £50m. Whitbread bought the Pelican chain for £133m in July 1996. It then had 103 restaurants.

With little interest within the industry, adviser Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is looking to private equity players or 'restaurant entrepreneurs' to stimulate the sale.

A source said: 'We have had a strong interest from a number of people. We're just sorting the wheat from the chaff.' A shortlist of likely candidates is expected to be drawn up in the next six weeks. Observers are suggesting that Robert Breare, boss of unquoted restaurant chain Noble House Leisure, may be interested.