There has been plenty of noise about deals in the leisure and hospitality sector recently, and, although they tend to be relatively small, all those deals, whether in restaurants, health and fitness, late night bars or pubs, have one thing in common — private equity. Private equity houses and the businesses they back are acquiring assets to take advantage of distressed prices. Even the truest “private equity” — wealthy private individuals — are responding to the low returns from savings accounts by using their cash to get back into the market. The problem, however, is that few people are selling.
Within the restaurant sector, all the leading operators are on the acquisition trail. Trade appears to have stabilised in many cases and those operators that