TGI Fridays UK business was acquired in pre-pack deal for £1m, had losses of £12.4m at time of sale by Calveton UK and Breal Capital: The business and assets of Liberty Bar and Restaurant Group, the company which manages the operations of TGI Fridays’ UK restaurants, was acquired in a pre-pack administration for £1,003,843, an administrators’ report has revealed. Sugarloaf TGIF Operations, a company owned by Sugarloaf, the manager and custodian of the worldwide TGI Friday brand, acquired 33 of TGI Fridays’ restaurants across the UK following the deal in January, safeguarding 1,384 jobs. A total of 16 sites were not included as part of the transaction, resulting in 456 redundancies. The pre-pack deal came less than three months after private equity firms Calveton UK and Breal Capital sold the TGI Fridays UK franchise business to the brand’s global manager, Sugarloaf TGIF Management, which is owned by former TGI Fridays chief executive Ray Blanchette. As part of the acquisition, Metro Bank provided a £12m secured facility. Sugarloaf TGIF Management also received secured loans totalling £4m from 13 individual loan note holders. The report by joint administrators Ryan Grant and Will Wright, of Interpath, revealed for the year to 30 September 2025, the company’s management accounts reported a loss after tax of £12.4m and an Ebitda loss of £3.2m. Breal and Calveton, which also own Evolv Collection – formerly D&D London – had acquired 51 out of the 87 TGI Fridays UK restaurants out of administration in October 2024 for £9.55m. The report stated: “The company faced difficulties during its first 12 months of trading [following its acquisition by Calveton UK and Breal Capital] and was impacted by reduced footfall, increased supplier costs and macroeconomic issues impacting the hospitality sector. As a result of the trading underperformance, the company experienced cashflow pressures and was unable to secure additional funding to support the business. The company was unable to generate sufficient cash to continue to pay its overheads, resulting in significant creditor stretch. On 21 November 2025, the company engaged lnterpath to commence an early options process. This process explored the sale, investment, refinancing and restructuring options available to the company. Following an extensive marketing process, the early options process resulted in two offers – one formal offer and a verbal offer. Neither offer was on a solvent basis. In light of mounting creditor pressure, the directors filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators on 5 December 2025. On 12 December 2025, the directors resolved to continue to progress with the written offer. On 18 December 2025 the scope of the early options process was expanded to cover contingency planning for an insolvency appointment. The directors filed a second notice of intention on 19 December 2025, as the completion of the transaction would not be possible before the expiry of the first notice of intention, albeit negotiations were significantly advanced. The purchaser subsequently experienced delays in setting up a UK bank account and a third notice of intention was filed by the directors on 7 January 2026. Shortly thereafter, the directors filed to appoint administrators on 13 January 2026 and a sale was completed.” On the date of the administrators’ appointment, secured creditor Metro Bank was owed £4.1m. Since the appointment, Metro Bank has received a distribution of £0.6m, but is not expected to receive anything further. The other secured creditor, Sugarloaf TGIF UK Holdings LLC, is owed £4.5m and is not expected to receive a distribution. Ordinary preferential claims are estimated at £0.3m and while they are expected to receive a dividend, the amount is currently uncertain. Secondary preferential claims are estimated to be £7.4m and are not expected to receive a dividend, No dividend is expected for unsecured creditors, who are owed circa £13m.