£15m bonanza over Cafe Rouge

A HANDFUL of directors and senior managers will share a £15m windfall after the sale of the company that owns the Cafe Rouge restaurant chain.

Tragus Holdings, led by departing chief executive Finlay Scott, will receive the juicy cheque following owner ECI Partners' decision to offload the chain to rival private equity firm Legal & General Ventures for £90m.

LGV reckons it has a war chest of more than £10m to fund aggressive expansion plans.

It is on the look-out for acquisitions though it is also keen to expand its existing network, which includes the Bella Italia, Mamma Amalfi and Abbaye eateries.

Taking debt and fresh cash that it is injecting into the company, LGV is stumping up £107m for Tragus Holdings, the umbrella company for the 157-strong chain, in the belief that the dining-out market is set for explosive growth.

LGV's Brian Phillips expects it to ape the US market, where 50% of meals are consumed outside the home. In Britain that figure is 33%. He is unperturbed by the recent slowdown in consumer spending - which has badly hit the retail sector.

'People may or may not have been shopping at Marks & Spencer this Christmas, but they have certainly been buying a croque monsieur on the way home,' Phillips said.

Tragus' latest trading data backs those comments up. It posted an 11% rise in underlying sales over the festive season.