Clapham House, the restaurant operator behind the Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Tootsies brands, returned to the bid spotlight yesterday after the company that owns the Nando's chicken chain lifted its stake to almost 25 per cent.

Clapham House, whose shares dived last month after a profit warning, announced yesterday that Capricorn Ventures International, an investment vehicle controlled by the Enthoven family, had raised its holding to 24.93 per cent, up from 18.4 per cent early last week. Clapham is also believed to have attracted bid interest from other private equity firms and trade suitors, including Cinven, which controls the PizzaExpress and ASK chains through its ownership of Gondola Group.

Shares in Clapham House, which fell from 248p to 150p on the day of the profit alert, rose 7p to 223p as investors bet that Capricorn could launch a full takeover bid.

In 2003, Capricorn teamed up with TDR Capital to acquire PizzaExpress after the chain had issued a profit warning. At the time PizzaExpress was run by David Page, who is now chairman of Clapham House.

Capricorn, which no longer has an interest in PizzaExpress, started buying shares in Clapham House soon after its profit warning, snapping up an 11 per cent stake.

Analysts suggested that although Capricon had not ruled out a bid, it may be stakebuilding in expectation of a move by a third party. Clapham's warning last month that profits over the next two years would be “significantly below original expectations” sent shares across its sector tumbling.

It said that although trading in its high street restaurants, notably its Gourmet Burger chain, was holding up well, many of its Tootsies eateries had suffered a decline in footfall.

There are strong suggestions that Clapham is considering selling its 24 remaining Tootsies restaurants with a view to restarting expansion of its Gourmet Burger chain. Clapham's comments have elicited a mixed reaction from rivals. Although

YO! Sushi and Tragus, the owner of Café Rouge, insist that trading remains robust, The Restaurant Group has warned investors of a slowdown in the fourth quarter. Prezzo, the AIM-listed Italian restaurant operator, added to the gloom yesterday by warning the market that it had seen “some evidence of a softening in consumer spending, noticeably so in November”.

Although it had strong sales in the run-up to Christmas, this had not fully mitigated the previous weakness in trading together with pre-opening costs for the 14 new eateries launched in November and December.

Prezzo, which is controlled by the Kaye family and has 127 outlets, now expects 2007 profits to be at the lower end of current market forecasts and said that it would take an impairment charge of about £3millon against the value of its fixed assets. Greg Feehely, an Altium Securities analyst, is forecasting adjusted pre-tax profits of £10.5million, up from £8.7million in 2006. Shares in Prezzo, which have dropped sharply since the Clapham House warning, stayed at 45p.

Neither Clapham House nor Capricorn could be reached for comment.

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