Bridgepoint mulls selling Burger King UK for a beefy £500m
The owner of Burger King has plotted early stage talks to sell the fast food retailer for some £500m just days after it listed on London’s top market, according to reports.
Bridgepoint, the private equity owner behind Burger King, floated on the London Stock Exchange last week in a rare listing that raked in £300m in capital and saw its shares explode upon its debut.
Shares in Bridgepoint were up 2.8 per cent in its afternoon trading, at 497.8p per share.
The private equity firm said that no advisors have yet been appointed for the sale of Burger King UK and that it was just “exploring its options”.
Bridgepoint snapped up Burger King UK back in 2017, along with the chain’s 530 sites.
The fast food chain’s chief executive warned last year that it may have to close up to 10 per cent of its branches due to the pandemic, but has remained relatively unscathed over the course of Covid-19.
Bridgepoint has entered hot water in recent days when it was revealed M&S chairman Archie Norman was on the receiving end of a rare signing-on fee of £1.75m to join the board as a senior independent director – which was buried in registration documents.
Norman’s hefty “initial fee” was awarded as an extra on top of the annual £200,000 remuneration for his new part-time role at the private equity firm.