Hospitality group Loungers PLC (AIM:LGRS) has agreed to a takeover offer from US private equity firm Fortress Investment Group at 310p per share.
The cash offer, which represents a 30% premium to yesterday’s closing price, values the AIM-listed company’s shares at £338 million and the enterprise at £350.5 million.
“We are more ambitious than ever and we see Fortress as being an ideal partner to help us take Loungers into the next phase of its growth journey,” said Loungers’ chairman Alex Reilley.
"We believe that the acquisition represents a compelling proposition for all of our stakeholders and will allow us to execute our ambitious growth plans even more decisively and effectively," he added.
Loungers has been a post-Covid hospitality success story.
It achieved record revenues and profit in the last financial year, when it opened 36 new sites across the UK.
In an interim trading statement published today, Loungers posted another 19% year-on-year revenue growth and a 51% surge in profit before tax to nearly £6 million.
Fortress, which is owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, said Loungers’ directors “have delivered impressive increases in the number of locations, same-store sales and revenues over the past several years - in spite of the recent challenges faced by the wider hospitality sector”.
Shareholders will be given the option to vote on the offer in an upcoming general meeting.