ALL 233 Little Chef diners are set to be sold to Lawrence Wosskow and Simon Heath, the food court entrepreneurs behind Out of Town, in a deal worth about £50 million.

Permira, Little Chef’s private equity owner, is in exclusive talks with the businessmen and an agreement is expected to be finalised within four to six weeks.

Permira had been expected to retain 115 Little Chef restaurants located next to its Travelodge hotels in order to preserve the quality of food available at those sites. However, Mr Wosskow and Mr Heath’s success at Out of Town, the shopping centre food courts business, and their commitment to continue to run Little Chef as a restaurant business persuaded Permira to negotiate a deal covering all the eateries.

Mr Wosskow and Mr Heath sold Out of Town to a management buy-in led by Penta Capital in 2002 and both have now left the business. Last year it was ranked the ninth-largest British restaurant group in the UK, with more than 100 units in shopping centres including Bluewater in Kent.

Industry insiders said that the pair had fought off rival bids for Little Chef from a management buyout and financial bidders thought to include Guy Naggar, the Gallic corporate raider, who recently took the Chez Gerard and Bertorelli restaurant business private.

Permira bought Little Chef as part of its £712 million buyout of the Travelodge budget hotel group from Compass, the contract caterer, in 2003.

The restaurant chain, which last year withdrew plans to slim down its famous chef logo after a public outcry, was put up for sale this year by Travelodge to allow it to focus financial and management resources on its core hotels business.

The hotels group is seen as a likely candidate for stock market flotation in the future.

Permira declined to comment and Mr Wosskow was unavailable for comment.

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