AAC wipes plate clean of T.G.I. Friday’s, makes 3.8 times return

Carlson, a privately held global hospitality and travel company, has acquired the company from AAC, which has offices in Amsterdam, London and Stockholm.

AAC partnered with Carlson Restaurants, a casual dining business and parent of T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants, in March 2007 to acquire T.G.I.’s UK restaurants from Whitbread for £70m (€83.5m).  The acquisition separated the operation of the restaurants from the property assets, with the enterprise value of the acquired operating company totalling £23m (€27.4m).  

The property assets were then subject to a sale and leaseback agreement with British Land. AAC took a majority stake with 60 per cent ownership, while Carlson Restaurants owned the remaining 40 per cent, with an exclusivity option to buy out AAC’s stake.

During AAC’s ownership, T.G.I.’s undisclosed EBITDA more than doubled from 2007 to 2010, and like-for-like sales growth of over five per cent.

Paul Southwell, UK managing partner at AAC, said, “While many high street chains have suffered during the recession, T.G.I. Friday’s UK has gone from strength to strength. This is testament to the dedication of the management team and AAC’s value creation expertise in the consumer sector.”

AAC was formerly the in-house private equity division of investment bank ABN AMRO, but spun out at the end of 2008 to become fully autonomous.

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