Sun Capital buys Strada for £37m

Tragus, which was recently acquired by an Apollo Global Management-led consortium, kicked off the sale process for 56 Strada restaurants in June this year, at the same time that Tragus restructured its debt.

The company had hired Zolfo Cooper Corporate Finance to run the process and was planning for it to be completed by the end of the summer. Reports at the time priced the assets at around £40m, reportedly around 8x Strada's most recent EBITDA.

Sun Capital has acquired the Strada brand and 43 of the restaurants. The firm plans to turn the restaurant brand into an all-day venue, rather than an evening meal establishment. The chain will also undergo menu changes, interior redesigns and expansion.

Sun Capital's owner Hugh Osmond acquired PizzaExpress alongside Risk Capital Partners' Luke Johnson in 1993 for £18m. The two oversaw the expansion of the chain until it floated in 1999.

Tragus was owned by Blackstone until earlier this year, when Apollo led a group of investors – including Oak Hill Capital Partners and York Capital Management – to buy up the struggling asset's debt burden from the GP.

Blackstone had acquired Tragus in 2006 for £267m, with a weighty debt package of around £167m provided by Barclays. Tragus bought Strada for £140m in 2007.

Company
Founded in 2000 by Risk Capital's Johnson and headquartered in London, Strada is a chain of UK restaurants that specialise in Italian food. Tragus acquired the restaurant chain in 2007 for £140m when it was owned by Blackstone.

People
James Spragg is the CEO of Strada.

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• Topics
• Buyouts
• UK / Ireland
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• Sun Capital
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