Gaucho goes private
Restaurant group Gaucho Grill will be removed from the Alternative Investment Market within a few weeks after being bought by a company founded by members of Gaucho's management team.
The company, Pan European Restaurants, set up for the purpose of taking Gaucho private, now owns 90.7% of the group, which under the Companies Act means it can now force the remaining shareholders to sell their shares in the business.
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Earlier this month, Gaucho announced that its independent directors had reached an agreement to sell the entire share capital of the group to Pan European.
Pan European is 24% owned by the Gioma group, a company in which Gaucho's chairman Zeev Godik and operations manager Jan Geenemans hold an major stake. The other 76% of Pan European is owned by investment company Furtado, which is controlled by the same group of private investors who control Gioma.