Wagamama proprietor in talks to snap up Oakman Inns

The hospitality firm which owns Wagamama is in talks to purchase a piece of Oakman Group, the pub and restaurant chain.

Sky Information has learnt that The Restaurant Group (TRG), which is backed by the non-public fairness agency Apollo International Administration, is in superior discussions to purchase among the privately held firm’s property.

Business sources stated that Oakman and its advisers had been negotiating with different potential bidders a few sale of its remaining property.

Oakman trades from greater than 30 websites, and has been working with advisers from PricewaterhouseCoopers for a number of weeks on an public sale.

One insider stated TRG was prone to purchase between one-third and half of Oakman’s websites if the deal was efficiently accomplished.

The client, which is run by former Boots and Coral chief Andy Hornby, would then combine them into its Brunning & Worth pub property, the insider added.

Additional particulars of the potential transaction had been unclear on Monday afternoon, though it’s prone to be price someplace between £50m and £100m.

The Oakman sale course of comes amid intensifying strain on the hospitality business, with latest tax rises and jittery client confidence triggering recent warnings of job losses and enterprise collapses.

Final week, Sky Information revealed that RedCat, the pubs operator based by former Greene King boss Rooney Anand, was in talks to swoop on his former employer to purchase its pub-hotel operations.

TRG and PwC declined to remark.