Leighton To Cook Up Wagamama Flotation

One of Britain’s best-known businessmen is to take the helm at Wagamama, the Asian dining chain, ahead of a review that could see it float on the London stock market.

Sky News understands that Allan Leighton, the former boss of Asda and ex-Royal Mail (LSE: RMG.L - news) chairman, is to become the restaurant group’s next chairman.

The move, to be announced next week, will come four years after Duke Street Capital and Hutton Collins, two investment firms, acquired the business, and is said by insiders to signal the early stages of a plan for them to consider options for their shareholdings.

Now (NYSE: DNOW - news) the chairman of the Co-operative Group, Mr Leighton is one of the most prominent company directors in the UK.

He is in the process of relinquishing of a number of his board roles, including at the set-top box maker Pace (Other OTC: PCMXF - news) , which has been taken over by Arris, a US rival.

Mr Leighton has also stepped down as chief executive of the Danish jewellery company Pandora (Copenhagen: PNDORA.CO - news) , and is likely to leave Office, the UK-based footwear retailer, if it is sold as expected later this year.

Wagamama, which means ‘naughty child’ in Japanese, was established by the restaurateur Allan Yau but has been owned by a series of private equity firms for many years.

Its current owners believe there is still considerable scope to expand the business, which trades from around 150 sites, more than 110 of which are in the UK.

In an update to investors in April, Wagamama said that like-for-like sales had risen by almost 10% during its third quarter, with turnover up 18.3% to £47.3m.

Earlier this year, it raised £150m through a bond issue to accelerate its expansion.

A Duke Street spokesman declined to comment, while Mr Leighton could not be reached for comment on Saturday.