Seasoned investor teams up with Nando's

PRESSURED parents dogged by starving offspring are these days as likely to be dragged into a Nando's as the next-door Pizza Express. There they will discover, according to the website, 'the warmth of the Nando's family and the heat of the peri-peri chilli'.

In fact the real family behind Nando's is that of its managing director Robbie Enthoven, whose South African ancestors set up Capricorn Ventures International, which owns the largest stake in Nando's. The group has 380 restaurants worldwide, with 63 in Britain, and makes little secret of its ambitions to expand.

Today's new financial partner (replacing Hugh Osmond's Sun Capital) is TDR Capital, a low-profile venture capital house founded by Manjit Dale, previously head of Deutsche Bank's private equity arm.

Dale has put together a number of medium-sized buyouts in Europe. Its main backer is US fund manager Tudor Investment Corporation. At Deutsche Bank, Dale and colleague Stephen Robertson, who moved to TDR with him, led Osmond's takeover of Punch Taverns.