Osmond to move in on bank assets

HUGH Osmond, the entre-preneur who bought and sold Pizza Express and built Punch Taverns, plans to target distressed bank assets with a new £500 million fund.

Targets are believed to include private healthcare groups Four Seasons and Priory – owned by Royal Bank of Scotland – and the RBS-backed leisure operator Gala Coral.

Other assets understood to be on Osmond's shopping list include gym chain Esporta and the remains of Bauger, the Icelandic investment group that bought the House of Fraser department store chain – including Edinburgh's Jenners – and toy shop Hamleys.

Osmond is expected to float a new investment vehicle, called Horizon, on the stock exchange, with a view to raising cash from the likes of hedge fund group Lansdowne Capital.

Mike Fairey, former deputy chief executive at Lloyds TSB, is believed to have been recruited as chairman, while non-executive directors on the board are understood to include former deputy chairwoman of the then monopolies and Mergers Commission Baroness Kingsmill and former investment banker Terry Eccles.

Osmond, along with outgoing Channel 4 chairman Luke Johnson, bought Pizza Express for 18m in 1993, before expanding the restaurant chain and selling it on to Gondola Holdings for 279m a decade later.

Gala Coral – which owns almost 2,000 betting shops, 148 bingo clubs and 27 casinos – is involved in complex debt restructuring with its senior lenders, led by RBS, and mezzanine lenders Park Square and Intermediate Capital.