VCT News
Beringea Warms Up with Coal Restaurants
4 September 2007 - London - Mid-market private equity firm Beringea Ltd has announced an expansion capital deal with Coal Restaurants. Beringea, manager of ProVen VCT and ProVen Growth & Income VCT, has committed £1.7 million to the emerging restaurant brand, which currently has one outlet in Wimbledon and several more under development across the UK. The funding was provided from both VCTs, and will enable Coal to rapidly roll out the concept nationally.
Coal founder John Gater had previously worked closely with Beringea through John's previous restaurant group, Ma Potter's. Ma Potter's, a successful restaurant chain with 16 locations across the UK, was a former ProVen VCT investment. The chain was sold to Tragus, owners of the Café Rouge chain, in March, fetching £14.15 million and generating a return of 2.5 times ProVen's initial investment.
The Coal restaurants will offer a vibrant, casual dining experience, with most of the outlets branded 'Coal Grill & Bar'. The restaurants will serve a range of grills, tapas, salads and pasta with ingredients where possible being sourced locally. Food is prepared using fresh ingredients before being cooked to order.
The Coal deal was completed by Beringea's Jeff Bocan, who commented "John Gater and his team are some of the best restaurant operators in the business and we are pleased to have the opportunity to be partners again on their latest venture. We are confident that we can build upon our success with Ma Potter's to generate tasty returns for our investors."
Coal Restaurants CEO John Gater commented "I am delighted to be working once again alongside Jeff Bocan and the team at Beringea who were supportive and focused on the success of my previous concept. As joint venture partners, we're looking forward to some appetising results being generated as the Coal brand is rolled out across the UK"
Advisors:
Equity: Addleshaw Goddard (Dee Sian & Christian Hyland) - Legal
Management: K & L Gates (Martin Lane and Nick Green) - Legal
Menzies (John Biffen) - Accountants
About Beringea
Beringea is an international venture capital firm with offices in London and Detroit. In the UK Beringea manages ProVen VCT, ProVen Health VCT, ProVen Growth & Income VCT and Global Rights Fund II. Beringea launched its first VCT in 1996, making it one of the most experienced VCT managers in the UK. ProVen Growth & Income and ProVen VCT are highest performing VCTs of their launch years, respectively, according to www.taxefficientreview.com. For more information please visit www.provenvcts.co.uk.