LGV set to buy Café Rouge

Café Rouge is set to get a new owner in a £90m deal due to be completed by the end of the month, say newspaper reports.

According to both The Times and the Financial Times, venture capital firm Legal & General Ventures (LGV) is in the final stages of acquiring Tragus, Café Rouge's parent company.

As part of the deal, LGV is expected to provide funds to expand Café Rouge.

The other chains owned by Tragus include Bella Italia (formerly Bella Pasta), Mamma Amalfi, and Abbaye.

The group has some 160 restaurants in total, about 75 of them under the Café Rouge banner and 65 Bella Italia.

Tragus was formed in 2002 to buy the former Pelican and BrightReasons divisions from Whitbread in a £25m deal.

In August 2004 it revealed that it had appointed corporate advisory firm Hawpoint to look at how the company should move forward.

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