Flavio Briatore, the former Renault Formula 1 team manager and well known entrepreneur owner of trendy and fashion restaurants and beach clubs, is said to be studying the sale of a majority stake of all its premises with Billionaire and Twiga brands in London, Montecarlo, Dubai and Forte dei Marmi, Il Sole 24 Ore writes.
This is a step further from what he was said to do before Summer when  MF Milano Finanza wrote Briatore had mandated Mediobanca to look for private equity firms interested in buying a minority stake in its business.
As for the permiter of the deal, there is no real group with a unique consolidated financial statement as each retaurant or beach club is a stannding-alone business with its own different partners. However subjects of the deal are said to be the Sumosan Twiga in London, the Billionaire in Dubai, the Cipriani in Montecarlo and the Twiga in Montecarlo and in Forte dei Marmi. This is a business that last year is said to have reached about 25 million euros in revenues.
Again according to MF Milano Finanza, the operation would not include the clothing sector (the Billionarie Couture label two years ago had been the object of a shareholders reorganization that saw the stylist Philippe Plein enter the scene alongside the real estate developer Antonio Percassi) nor the real estate and tourism business that Briatore developed years ago in Africa, as the luxury resort Lion in the Sun of Malindi, finished months ago on the market without success due to the collapse of the tourist flows of the country; even the tour operator Billionaire Travel, domiciled in Switzerland, is not part of this sale.
Back in Spring 2013 Mr. Briatore had already sold the majority of the Club Billionaire Sardinia (Porto Cervo), Istanbul and Bodrum (Turkey), Monte Carlo and the Twiga Beach Club Versilia to Far East Leisure, a vehicle of Bay Capital, Singapore’s investment group, with the aim of growing the brand, also through the opening of new Billionaire Clubs in Asia, Dubai, Singapore and China.
