Investor slams The Restaurant Group’s £506m price tag

An activist investor has slammed the price of the buyout deal for The Restaurant Group (TRG), claiming it undervalues the Wagamama-owner by around £100 million.

American private equity giant Apollo has agreed to take the group private for £506 million, or 65p per share.

TRG’s bosses have backed the deal, claiming they rebuffed an earlier lower bid.

But TMR Capital, which has campaigned for months for the company to sell all its brands apart from noodle chain Wagamama, believes TRG is worth at least 80p per share.

This would value it at more than £600 million.

TMR also told The Mail on Sunday that it alerted Apollo to The Restaurant Group as a good bid target. 

The Restaurant Group in September announced it would sell the Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito’s restaurant chains to the owner of Café Rouge. 

Apollo was contacted for comment.