Franco Manca owner agrees to £93m buyout by Japanese group
The owner of Franco Manca and The Real Greek restaurant chains has agreed to sell the business to the Japanese operator of Wok to Walk and Marugame Udon for £93.4m.
Toridoll, which is listed on the Tokyo exchange and has sales of £1bn worldwide, said it had partnered with the restaurant sector specialist fund Capdesia to buy the London-listed pizza and Greek casual dining group Fulham Shore for 14.15p a share in cash.
Shares in Fulham Shore soared by a third to 14p on Wednesday morning when the deal was announced.
Toridoll was founded in 1990 by Takaya Awata, who started with a yakitori – or grilled chicken – restaurant in Japan in the 1980s and now has more than 1,000 outlets around the world.
The Japanese group said it had made the offer for Fulham Shore as the British group had continued to perform well despite “challenging trading circumstances of recent years”. It said the group, which currently has 97 outlets across the UK, had room to grow in the UK and overseas as well as putting more products, such as readymade pizzas, in retail stores.
David Page, the executive chair of Fulham Shore, said the group’s board was recommending the deal to shareholders as it would allow it to “fulfil its long-term potential”.
He said: “We are proud of the significant progress that Fulham Shore has made since it was founded in 2012. While 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.”
Franco Manca, known for its sourdough pizzas, was founded in Brixton, south London, in 2008 and was bought by Fulham Shore in 2015, when it already owned The Real Greek.
The group said on
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