Caterer and Hotelkeeper – 7176

Empress Garden buys four Zen restaurants

FOUR of Laurence Leung's Zen Group restaurants which went into receivership last month have been sold tothe owners of the Empress Garden Chinese restaurant group.

Blaidwood Limited, comprising Zen Chelsea, ZENW3, Now & Zen and Zen Central, was sold for more than £3.5m, with the assets being split between two companies, Tealeaf and Melody Lane.

Both companies are part of a group headed up by Yan Ho Cheung, who runs the Empress and Princess Garden restaurants in London's Mayfair. Other investors are said to have shares in the new group, but Mr Leung is not thought to have any involvement.

A spokeswoman for Tealeaf said no changes would be made to the restaurants following the deal last week.

She said their combined turnover over the next 12 months was expected to be comparable to the £5.35m reported for 1992 by the previous owners.

Joint receiver Nigel Ruddock told Caterer that about six offers of more than£3m were made for the restaurants, and more than 12 were made overall. He said he had accepted the highest offerthat was backed by proof of funding.