Three Michelin starred chef Gordon Ramsay is considering a floatation of his restaurant business on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), in a bid to fuel his international expansion ambitions.
The chef, who operates the Verre restaurant in Dubai and owns eight eateries in London, said there had been significant interest in his firm from financiers and that he is seriously considering taking the restaurant group public.
According to a report in the UK’s Times newspaper, citing a new guide to restaurants in London, Ramsay believes that his flagship Maze eaterie could be turned into an international chain if it gets the right financial backing.
“We’d be very stupid not to think about it,” Ramsay told Square Meal’s 2006 guidebook. “The level of interest we got on the back of publishing our accounts last year was phenomenal, so of course I’m interested in the idea of floating.”
Ramsay’s firm, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, earned profits of around US$7 million last year on turnover of over US$50 million. It made a profit of US$900,000 in 2001, but a loss of over US$1 million in 2003. City analysts believe that the group could now be worth as much as US$90 million. “I think there’s real potential with the Maze’s deformalised eating concept, for example, to open a network of restaurants — a chain of baby Mazes — right across the world,” Ramsay told Square Meal. “And we’d need heavyweight financial backing to project us to a global brand in that way.”
Ramsay has revealed plans to open two more restaurants in the coming year, the first in New York and the second — along the lines of Maze — in Los Angeles towards the end of 2006. He is also said to be planning to open further restaurants in Dubai and considering additional projects in Chicago, Singapore and Shanghai. A second New York venture is also in the offing.
Ramsay has said in the past that he has a target of reaching US$180 million in turnover “within the next few years”. However, he has also made clear that he has no intention of giving up control of his group. “I would always keep a majority share of the business, so there’d be no question of the quality or individuality of the restaurant suffering,” he said.
The 38-year-old father of four, who is also the star of several television hit shows, owns 69% of the company. His father-in-law is the firm’s chief executive.
Follow us on
