Symonds to leave Bay Restaurant amid buyer interest

The 82-strong Slug & Lettuce brand is to be transferred out of Bay Restaurants into sister company Town & City at the end of this month amid private equity interest in Bay.

The move will leave Bay Restaurants with two food-led brands — the 73-strong La Tasca and 24-strong Ha Ha chains.

Bay chief executive Paul Symonds will also be leaving at the end of February when the company's financial year ends with commercial director Suzanne Baker taking over.

Symonds is understood to be pursuing a number of leisure sector acquisitions himself.

A source said: "His departure is very amicable — he's got a number of things he wants to look at.

"But the company's using Paul's departure as a catalyst to re-align operational responsibilities."

Company sources indicate that Bay has received unsolicited interest from a number of private equity buyers.

The company is thought to be more likely to be attractive to potential bidders once it has become more focused on foodier brands.

Analysts estimate the business could be worth a minimum of £100m.

Bay Restaurants and Town & City Pubs were formed out of the pre-pack administration of Laurel Pub Company, which itself was created out of three businesses — Laurel Pub Company, SFI Group and Yates.

It was originally created by Robert Tchenguiz but his involvement ceased last March in the wake of moves by his lead bank Kaupthing to recall hundreds of millions of pounds of loans.

Both Bay and Town & City are chaired by Ian Payne. The transfer of the Slug & Lettuce brand to Town & City would mean the latter's estate growing in size to around 230 pubs.

Bay has enjoyed flat like-for-likes in recent weeks while trading at Town & City is reported to be "strong".