HOWZAT

For the dealmakers and investment bankers who pored over Trust House Forte in its last days, however, Little Chef was just a cash-generating mediocrity, of no account alongside the trophy London hotels. Gerry Robinson’s Granada Group, which the City backed in a break-up bid for THF, was not really interested. In 2003, the tubby little chap was wrapped in a package with Travelodge budget hotels and sold to private equity clients of Permira.

Permira did not really understand either. In a fit of political correctness, management decided to slim down the Little Chef logo to mollify Whitehall dieticians, as well as to reflect the chain’s healthier menu. Customers were appalled and the innovation was soon dropped.

Instead, Permira started to boost the bottom line by closing down a series of marginal outlets. This may have had the perverse effect of undermining customers’ faith in the chain. Instead of being able to rely on finding a Little Chef, they might have to check in advance that one is on their way.

Not surprisingly, Permira, in its turn, put the chain up for sale in November, claiming that it had really wanted Travelodge and Little Chef would be better off elsewhere. Possibly so. Lawrence Wosskow and Simon Heath, now in exclusive talks to buy the remaining 233 outlets, made their money in budget restaurants so they may actually be interested in the chain. It needs stability and owners who care if it is to survive.

Unreal money

EVEN by the standards set by the US merchant banking fraternity, the sums of money being paid by Morgan Stanley in golden goodbyes to Philip Purcell, the ousted chairman and chief executive, are eye- poppingly large. The sums that might go to Stephen Crawford and Zoe Cruz, Mr Purcell’s lieutenants who might have considered themselves anointed ones, are no less startling. Add $44 million (£25 million) to a brace of possible $32 million payouts and, to misquote the phrase often and apparently apocryphally coined by Everett Dirksen, the US senator, pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Ms Cruz, in common with Messrs Purcell and Crawford, may be contractually entitled to the cash. Some of those associated with Morgan Stanley may be able to justify the payments because they may wipe a troubled slate clean. But it is surely unsurprising to see the Council of Institutional Investors getting rather testy about the sums involved. They are so large that they are almost meaningless to anyone in any remotely ordinary walk of life. It does nothing to enhance the standing of the reputationally challenged investment banks.

• Just as shareholders in Mersey Docks & Harbour thought that their ship had berthed ahead of a £1 billion takeover by Peel Holdings, rough seas whipped up by the OFT delayed disembarkation. Mersey said yesterday that the OFT would take “more than the usual 40 working days” to decide whether to refer the bid by Peel to the Competition Commission. Mersey investors, already restless after nearly six months of to-ing and fro-ing, face a further delay before they can accept Peel’s bid and book profits. And there is still no absolute guarantee that their boat will come in.

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