Administrators ‘on standby’ at TGI Fridays UK

Administrators are reportedly “on standby” at TGI Fridays UK after plans to buy its US parent company collapsed.

The Telegraph reports that Hostmore, which owns the UK franchise, is looking to sell its 87 restaurants to save the future of the brand.

It comes after talks of a merger between TGI’s in the UK and the US broke down earlier this month.

Hostmore said in April it had agreed to buy the casual dining brand for £177m.

But the deal fell through after the American company lost control of TGIF Funding, which controls the royalties from its lucrative franchise agreements and intellectual property.

The surprise announcement saw Hostmore’s share price plunge more than 90% from the start of the month to open today at 0.2 pence.

It marks a stark drop from when the company was spun out of private equity trust Electra in November 2021 and started trading at 147 pence a share.

Hostmore has debts of £35m which it had planned to finance through selling off restaurants and moving to a fully franchised model.

Like-for-like sales across the group during the first four months of the year were 10% down on the previous year.

Hostmore previously ran the 63rd + 1st restaurant and cocktail bar concept, which was inspired by the original TGI Fridays restaurant in New York. However, its final two sites closed in June, three years after its launch.

Hostmore declined to offer further comment.

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