Blackstone, the company behind Café Rouge, Bella Italia and Strada chains is preparing for a possible £500 million-plus flotation in early 2008. Tragus Group, which is controlled by Blackstone, a private equity firm, is understood to be in discussions with investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and UBS, with a view to pursuing an initial public offering (IPO) early next year. The company looked at an IPO last year and ended up accepting a £267 million takeover by Blackstone. Since then, it has forked out £140 million on the acquisition of Strada and narrowly lost to Robert Tchenguiz in the bid for La Tasca, the tapas chain. Tragus is run by chief executive, Graham Turner. (source: The Londonpaper & Times Online)
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
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