Christie completes £7m restaurant sale

25th Nov 2010 07:58

Christie Group has sold the leasehold interests of 28 non-core eateries for Paramount Restaurants at an average of more than £250,000 each - over £7m in total.The company, which also provides structuring and finance, valuation and rent reviews, offloaded 12 Brasserie Gerards, eight Caffè Unos, four il Bertorellis, three Bertorellis and one Chez Gerard.All went but two were snapped up by established corporate operators - Tragus, Gondola Holdings, Prezzo, Giraffe, Costa Coffee and Busaba Eathai - with several sites achieving "significant" premiums. Six of the restaurants were in central London, ten inside the M25 and the rest scattered around the country."The disposal of these 28 restaurants underlines what we have been saying for the last two years, that despite the tough trading environment, buyers will quickly appear for well-located and realistically priced assets, especially those that they can quickly turnaround at minimum cost," Simon Chaplin, Head of Restaurants at Christie + Co said. "It also showed that premiums could still be achieved in a challenging market."