Britain's Tragus Group, which runs the Cafe Rouge and Strada chains, will shed more than 260 million pounds ($435.21 million)of debt and offload up to 40 restaurants in a sweeping restructuring by its new private equity owner, the Times reported, without citing sources. The paper said Tragus planned to sell the struggling Italian chain Strada. (link.reuters.com/hez79v)U.S.-based Apollo Global Management, which recently took over control of Tragus from Blackstone Group LP, also aims to exit between 30 and 40 Bella Italia and Cafe Rouge leases, the Times reported.It added that Apollo planned to use a debt-for-equity swap to cut Tragus's borrowings from 354 million pounds to 91 million pounds.Representatives for Apollo could not be reached for comment outside of regular business hours. ($1 = 0.5974 British pounds)
The Blackstone Group L.P. (Blackstone) is a manager of private capital and provider of financial advisory services. Shares of BX traded higher by 0.03% or $0.01/share to $31.22. In the past year, the shares have traded as low as $19.15 and as high as $35.39. On average, 5630370 shares of BX exchange hands on a given day and today's volume is recorded at 2921315.
Source
