Living Room, the trendy bar chain beloved of footballers and WAGs, is to be acquired by Ultimate Leisure, the AIM-listed bar and nightclub operator, for about £28 million.

The chain, which has 13 outlets, including two in London, is being sold by Living Ventures, a bar and restaurant company founded by Tim Bacon, a former actor who starred in Sons and Daughters, the Australian soap.

A formal Stock Exchange announcement is expected on Monday.

Two years ago The Restaurant Group (TRG), which owns Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s, bought a 40 per cent stake in Living Ventures for £7.7 million. Living Ventures acquired TRG’s struggling Est Est Est restaurant chain as part of the deal.

Since then relations between the two companies have become strained. In January three directors of TRG stepped down from the board of Living Ventures. Two months later TRG was forced to take a £9.5 milllion hit against the value of its stake because of poor trading. It is not clear what will happen to the remaining Living Ventures business, comprising ten Est Est Est eateries and four Blackhouse Grill outlets, or TRG’s 40 per cent stake.

Mr Bacon, who founded the company in 1999 with Jeremy Roberts, abandoned acting after moving to Britain and taking a job at TGI Friday’s in Covent Garden. He opened the first Living Room in Manchester, where it became a popular haunt of the Manchester United football team.

The attraction of the chain for Ultimate Leisure is its strong food sales. Mark Jones, Ultimate’s executive chairman, who was parachuted in to rescue the struggling business in 2005, is moving further into food to reduce its reliance on drink-led operations before the smoking ban on July 1.

Ultimate recently raised £25 million of equity funding through a share issue backed by Dawnay Day and the Reuben brothers. The company said at the time that by gearing up it would have £75 million to spend on expanding the business from 34 outlets to at least 100.

Last month the Newcastle-based company made its first food-based acquisition, snapping up the Bel and The Dragon pub-restaurant chain from Gourmet Holdings, the owner of the Richoux coffee shop chain, in a deal worth £8.75 million.

None of the parties involved in the Living Room deal would comment last night.

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