Bay set to sell Ha Ha — withdraws La Tasca

Bay Restaurants is to embark on a two-year investment programme for its 70-strong La Tasca brand after a sale process failed to produce offers at the right level.

However, the company has entered into an exclusivity agreement with an unnamed buyer for its 22-strong Ha Ha Bar & Grill brand, which is set to conclude before the end of this month.

Sources indicate that Ha Ha produced "very strong" interest with six or seven serious buyers before the bid deadline at the end of last month.

The decision to withdraw La Tasca from the market was revealed internally last Friday. The Slug & Lettuce brand was transferred out of Bay Restaurants at the end of February and is now part of sister company Town & City Pubs.

Paul Symonds, Bay's chief executive, left the business at that time and Suzanne Baker, the former Wetherspoon commercial director, now heads it.

Bay Restaurants will now move ahead with investing in two more La Tasca restaurants — in Brighton and Leeds — after the successful evolution of the Manchester Deansgate site.

A source said: "The Manchester site is trading at £40,000 a week after the refurbishment made it much lighter and more contemporary — there's also an open kitchen so customers can see the cooking. The problem with La Tasca is that it doesn't trade lunchtimes because it's too dark."

Bay Restaurants, now owned by the Kaupthing and Commerzbank banks, was originally created by Robert Tchenguiz but his involvement ceased in March 2009 in the wake of moves by his lead bank Kaupthing to recall hundreds of millions of pounds of loans.

Ian Payne chairs both Bay and Town & City. The two companies 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.

The bid process for Bay Restaurants has been conducted by boutique advisory McQueen.