Anglo Irish provides loan facility to purchase Little Chef

Taylor Wessing advised client Anglo Irish Bank on the provision of a £39m secured loan facility to The People's Restaurant Group Ltd, which purchased the chain of Little Chef Restaurants and the Little Chef brand on 20 October 2005 for £52 million from private equity firm Permira.  The Little Chef business was put up for sale in November 2004.

Little Chef is Britain's largest roadside restaurant chain and the new owners Lawrence Wosskow and Simon Heath are planning to reduce prices at the 235-strong chain and overhaul its menus.

Anglo Irish was advised by Taylor Wessing.  The Taylor Wessing team was led by Paul Harrison (Finance) and Mark Bennett (Real Estate), and included Nada Jarnaz (Finance) Charlotte Bowry, Miri Walker, Sophie Hawkes and Steve Summers (Real Estate).

The People’s Restaurant Group was advised by DLA and their team included Andrew Morris, Nigel Howard and Sarah Acton.