Bay Restaurant Group up for sale

The Bay Restaurant Group, which operates La Tasca and Ha Ha Bar and Grill, has been put up for sale by its owners Kaupthing and Commerzbank for an estimated £70m, according to the Daily Telegraph​.

Advisors McQueen are reported to be looking for buyers which could include private-equity owned Tragus, which owns Café Rouge, and Gondola, which owns Pizza Express, ASK and Zizzi.

Paul Symonds left the position of chief executive at Bay Restaurants in February with a view to fronting a bid for the company.

Suzanne Baker, the company's former commercial director, has been running the company since then.

The banks acquired the group last year in a debt-for equity swap after previous owner Robert Tchenguiz had his investments wiped out by the credit crunch.

In April 2007 Tragus came second in a bidding war with Tchenguiz's vehicle, R20, to acquire the La Tasca chain.

Tchenguiz bought the restaurant group for £123m and added it to its Laurel Pub Company.

R20 bought Laurel, which ran the Hogshead pub chain, for £151m in November 2004.

It then added the 80 sites, including the Slug & Lettuce brands, from the administrators of SFI Group for £80m and Yates's for £202m the following year, before adding the La Tasca assets.

Laurel was placed into administration in March 2008 before being bought back by R20 in a "pre-pack" deal.

R20's accounts published last October revealed liabilities exceeded assets by £28.2m.