Rockpool Group in play
So the big news around the traps is that Neil Perry’s celebrated Rockpool chain is close to being sold.
According to a report in The Australian, the Quadrant private equity group is about to stitch up the sale by Friday.
Precise figures aren’t available but the sales price has been estimated to be somewhere around $100 million.
And it doesn’t end there, it’s just the start.
Once Quadrant secures the Rockpool Group, it plans to float the Urban Purveyor. All being well, there could be an IPO next year. Watch this space.
Quadrant Private Equity has been expanding into the hospitality sector and last November, it swooped on restaurant entrepreneur John Szangolies’s Urban Purveyor Group, picking it up for $175 million.
Szangolies' food and beverage empire extends across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland and restaurants in that stable include Ananas Bar & Brasserie, The Argyle, The Cut Bar & Grill, Sake Restaurant and Bar, Bavarian Bier Cafe, Munich Brahaus, El Camino Cantina, The Alfred and Fratelli Fresh.
Quadrant is also in the process of offloading the Gresham-advised Zip Industries operation and perhaps even the Icon Group and Super AMart. This might be done through either an IPO or trade sale.
All this is part of the massive turnover in Australia’s $30 billion restaurant and bar industry.
The big talk around the traps is that an offshore buyer is zeroing in on Redcape’s $700m-plus hotel business — Australia’s largest independent pub group.
According to media reports, the international suitor is talking to other local pub operators.
Goldman Sachs is managing the sale of the portfolio of 26 venues.
And then, there was the news last week Dixon Hospitality taking control of certain restaurants in the Keystone stable, including The Loft, Cargo Bar, The Winery, The Rook, Kingsleys Woolloomooloo and Chophouse Sydney.
by Leon Gettler, October 31st 2016
