Pizza Express could permanently close scores of its 470 UK restaurants
- Pizza Express is grappling with a £1.1billion debt pile
- A restructuring process known as a CVA is one of several options
Pizza Express could permanently close scores of its 470 UK restaurants.
The Mail on Sunday understands the high street chain could go through a restructuring process known as a CVA, which would allow it to exit some or all of its loss-making sites and reach an agreement with creditors.
Before the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, forcing restaurants to close, fewer than ten of the chain’s UK venues were loss-making.
Pizza Express could go through a restructuring process known as a CVA
But it is understood the crisis has forced the firm to evaluate options for ensuring its future viability and a CVA is one of several possibilities.
Pizza Express – owned by Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital – is grappling with a £1.1billion debt pile, of which £665million is owed to bondholders, and is seeking a consent solicitation to delay publication of its 2019 results on advice from the Financial Conduct Authority.
Earlier this month credit ratings agency S&P said a debt restructuring was ‘highly likely’.
Pizza Express – which employs 14,000 people globally across 627 restaurants – declined to comment.