TnuiCapital to acquire Busaba

Katharine Hidalgo
06 July 2020

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TnuiCapital has agreed to acquire restaurant chain Busaba Eathai.

An agreement has been reached and Tnui plans to inject fresh capital. Tnui looks to support buyouts, non-core acquisitions or financial restructurings and invests £250,000-50m.

Terry Harrison, Busaba's managing director, is to remain at the helm.

Tnui competed for the company against a group headed by John Vincent, co-founder of the Leon chain, reports said. Turnaround expert RCapital is also understood to have been interested.

Muzinich, a stakeholder in the company, has fully exited as a result of the deal.

KPMG was hired by Busaba earlier in 2020 to consider options for the business and, if no fresh investment had emerged, it could have headed for a company voluntary arrangement.

Previous funding
Phoenix acquired Busaba in a 2008 transaction valued at £21.5m, with capital drawn from Phoenix Equity Partners 2006.

In July 2019, Muzinich Private Debt acquired a controlling stake in Busaba. At the time, the firm was investing from its Pan-European Private Debt Fund, which held an interim close on €460m in May 2018.

Company
Founded in 1999 and headquartered in London, Busaba operates a chain of 13 Thai restaurants. The company generated a turnover of £29m in 2017.

People
Busaba Eathai – Terry Harrison (managing director).