Johnson bids to take Signature private

Luke Johnson, who first tasted stock market success with Pizza Express, yesterday turned his back on the quoted arena with a £24.7m bid to take Signature Restaurants, formerly Belgo Group, private.

But the recommended offer, which values the owner of The Ivy, Le Caprice and the Belgo mussels chain at 60p a share, faces a potential stumbling block in the form of the group's main shareholder. Park Place Capital, an investment fund that holds a 29.6 per cent stake in Signature, said yesterday it would wait until receiving the offer document before deciding whether to back Mr Johnson.

The fund is understood to be linked to rival restaurateur Giuliano Lotto, whose A-Z restaurants group includes culinary hotspots L'Aubergine and L'Oranger, and has long been tipped as a possible bidder.

Signature, which revealed in May it had received an approach from its management, cited tough trading, particularly in London, as the main reason for recent disappointing stock market history. The shares, which recently underwent a one-for-20 consolidation, peaked at the equivalent of 239p in 1998, but have fallen in the face of poor trading conditions and the misguided expansion of its Belgo chain. They hit a low of 25p after 11 September.

Mr Johnson teamed up with Andy Bassadone, the chief executive, and Nicholas Fiddler, the finance director, to make the takeover offer through Pinco, a company formed for the purpose. The offer represents a 44 per cent premium to Signature shares before the plans leaked out. Pinco has support from 20.3 per cent of Signature's shareholders. This includes Mr Johnson and Mr Bassadone's combined 5.3 per cent and the stake controlled by a mystery Virgin Island-based investor, Kintaro International. Jeremy King and Christopher Corbin, who set up The Ivy before selling out to Mr Johnson in 1998, are also backing the offer.

Signature's five-year stock market heritage began in 1998 when Mr Johnson acquired Belgo for less than £10m and reversed into Lonsdale Holdings, a shell company he controlled. That year also saw the £9.3m acquisition of a group of restaurants from Mogens Tholstrup and the £13.1m purchase of Caprice Holdings. from the Ivy duo. Signature shares closed up 13.25p at 59.25p.