Overview

The Directors intend to create a chain of restaurants providing authentic, home style Indian food on a consistent basis across the Indian Restaurants Group Plc. The Group will initially target (i) the mid market, (ii) sporting and event catering and (iii) lunchtime takeaway.

The Directors believe that the combination of the Mela Group’s business and the Company’s existing cash resources and its access to the equity market, has the potential for delivering positive returns to shareholders in the medium term. The Directors believe that this strategy will create shareholder value and that the Acquisition satisfies the Company’s investment criteria as the Mela Group offers it:

- a management team with a track record of developing new businesses
- an ability to generate revenue streams
- an existing platform from which further growth can be developed

The Directors believe that the key features of the Indian restaurant sector are that:

- it is well established with a market size in excess of £3 billion;
- it is an extremely fragmented market with over 9,800 restaurants in the UK; and
- there is no current UK national branded provider and therefore there is an opportunity to consolidate in this niche with the UK’s first nationwide chain.