Pizza Express mulls bid for Wagamama owner

Pizza Express and Wagamama could be brought under the same roof, as it was revealed that the owner of the pizza chain is mulling a takeover for The Restaurant Group (TRG).

TRG, the company behind Wagamama, said that it had been approached by Wheel Topco, which owns the pizza chain.

Wheel has not yet made an offer for the business, but has requested the information it would need to do so.

TRG said that it had provided this information and would assess any offer when and if it came.

“The board of TRG … confirms it has received a request within the last week from Wheel Topco … for diligence information on the company … to enable Wheel Topco to evaluate a possible offer for the company,” the business told shareholders on Thursday.

“No written or verbal indicative proposal relating to a possible offer, including as to terms, price or form of consideration, has been made to the board of TRG by Wheel Topco.”

The news comes two weeks after the board of TRG backed a £701 million takeover offer from private equity group Apollo.

As part of that deal Apollo would pay 65p per share, around one third higher than where the company’s shares were trading the day before the offer was made.

TRG said on Thursday that its “intention to recommend (the Apollo deal) is not withdrawn, qualified or modified”.

Alongside the noodle chain Wagamama, TRG also owns pubs, including Brunning & Price, and several food concessions at airports and other travel locations.

It runs around 380 sites across the country.

It recently agreed to give away its 75 Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurants to Big Table Group for the nominal sum of £1 each.

To sweeten the deal TRG also said it would pay Big Table Group £7.5 million.

That deal is expected to be completed at the end of this month.