Birmingham restaurateur ‘to make takeover bid’ for Patisserie Valerie

Patisserie Valerie at Resorts World

A Birmingham-based restaurateur has announced his intention to make a bid for crisis-hit cake retailer Patisserie Valerie.

David Scott, who used to run Druckers Vienna Patisserie, a Birmingham-based group of cafes sold to Patisserie Valerie in 2007, said he had backing from a family-run private equity firm, according to The Sunday Times.

Scott has engaged Transcend Corporate, which is understood to be taking to some of the shareholders.

Earlier this month, Patisserie Valerie announced it had discovered “significant, and potentially fraudulent, accounting irregularities” and its shares were suspended after a £40m hole was found in its accounts.

Scott said: “Patisserie Valerie can be turned around and pulled back. It’s a simple operation but it needs some real, tough day-to-day, hands-on management.”

The news comes as leading investors in Patisserie Valerie are thought to be pushing chairman Luke Johnson to give up control of an internal investigation into the hole in its accounts over concerns that the review is not sufficiently independent.

The chain was saved from collapse earlier this month after Johnson joined forces with investors to plug the firm with cash.

Johnson made £20m available in emergency funding to prevent the company’s collapse, keeping its 200 stores open while securing 2,800 jobs.

Shareholders, including fund managers Schroders, Invesco Perpetual and Miton, bought in at 50p-per-share to provide £15.7m of funding.

The company’s finance director Chris Marsh, who was arrested on suspicion of fraud, was bailed. He resigned from the company last week.

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