Richard Caring, the British billionaire, placed luxury restaurant The Ivy, and its sister sites, on the market for £1 billion last week, reports revealed.
HSBC is believed to have begun a sales process for The Ivy, which is in Covent Garden in London, as well as all of the Ivy Asia and Ivy Collection sites.
Caring owns the Ivy group in a joint venture with ex-Qatari prime minister Sheikh Hamad Bin-Jassim Bin-Jaber Al Thani, although the former is believed to hold all voting and operational control.
Among those believed to have been offered the food sites are Saudi Arabia’s Public Income Fund (PIF), which recently bought a 49% share in Rocco Forte’s hotels group.
PIF also owns Newcastle United and is interested in a takeover of Heathrow Aiport.
Caring isn’t selling his other hospitality venues which include Scott’s, Sexy Fish and J Sheekey, plus the Mayfair nightclub Annabel’s, reports added.
In October, it was revealed that trading at the Ivy Collection had soared since the pandemic ended, with significant sales and profit increases for the year to 1 January 2023.