When Fulham Shore accepted a £93.4 million takeover bid from Tokyo-listed Toridoll and Capdesia, the private equity firm, in April, there were some City folk who thought David Page had sold the Franco Manca and Real Greek operation too cheaply.
One investment banker put it succinctly at the time: “Fulham Shore have thrown in the towel and are selling out at less than five times enterprise value to ebitda [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation].”
Seven months on and the same conversation is taking place, only with different protagonists. Apollo Global Management is paying a multiple of nine times ebitda for The Restaurant Group (TRG), yet a number of analysts have played the “too cheap” card. Even accepting that like-for-like comparisons are tricky, the
