Latest news with #expansion
Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Burger chain Five Guys flips debt with £185m refinancing
The burger chain Five Guys will this week announce a £185m refinancing as it seeks to expand its European estate in a challenging climate for restaurant operators. Sky News understands that Five Guys, which launched in the UK in 2013, has landed a new five-year debt deal with lenders including Britain's major high street banks. Sources said the agreement was likely to be announced on Wednesday. Money latest: Economists issue warning as government borrowing soars Five Guys trades from nearly 180 sites in the UK, employing roughly 5,500 people. It also operates under the same corporate ownership structure in France, Germany and Spain, with its European operations in total employing about 9,000 people. ADVERTISEMENT The European business is a 50-50 joint venture between Freston Ventures - the investment vehicle of Sir Charles Dunstone, co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse - and the Murrell family which founded Five Guys in the US. It is now expected to seek to open a larger number of drive-thru restaurants in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. In a statement issued to Sky News, John Eckbert, Five Guys Europe's chief executive, said: "Securing additional debt capital at a more favourable rate in today's market is a significant accomplishment. "This £185m refinancing transaction is a testament to the strength of the Five Guys brand and our successful operational performance. "The latest capital injection will be instrumental in accelerating our expansion strategy." The deal comes as hospitality groups warn of an increasing challenge to survive following tax increases announced in Rachel Reeves's Budget last autumn, with chains such as Cote now exploring urgent sale processes in a bid to secure new investment.
Skift
19 minutes ago
- Business
- Skift
The Leela's First Earnings Report Post-IPO: Launches New Mumbai Venture
The Leela is entering a new phase of expansion following IPO, but it is not straying away from its luxury proposition as it focuses on expanding offerings at its current properties. Schloss Bangalore, the parent company of The Leela, is expanding into Mumbai with an ultra-luxury hotel in the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), one of India's most prominent business districts. The development will include more than 250 rooms and will be fully owned by the company, executives said Tuesday during Schloss Bangalore's first earnings call following its IPO. According to The Leela, BKC hasn't seen any new hotel supply since 2011. 'Bandra Kurla Complex has huge untapped demand for hospitality,' said Chief Financial Officer Ravi Shankar during the call. 'With no new hotel supply since 2011, the market has only 39 keys per million square feet of office space, while Delhi
Sky News
an hour ago
- Business
- Sky News
Burger chain Five Guys flips debt with £185m refinancing
The burger chain Five Guys will this week announce a £185m refinancing as it seeks to expand its European estate in a challenging climate for restaurant operators. Sky News understands that Five Guys, which launched in the UK in 2013, has landed a new five-year debt deal with lenders including Britain's major high street banks. Sources said the agreement was likely to be announced on Wednesday. Five Guys trades from nearly 180 sites in the UK, employing roughly 5,500 people. It also operates under the same corporate ownership structure in France, Germany and Spain, with its European operations in total employing about 9,000 people. The European business is a 50-50 joint venture between Freston Ventures - the investment vehicle of Sir Charles Dunstone, co-founder of The Carphone Warehouse - and the Murrell family which founded Five Guys in the US. It is now expected to seek to open a larger number of drive-thru restaurants in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. In a statement issued to Sky News, John Eckbert, Five Guys Europe's chief executive, said: "Securing additional debt capital at a more favourable rate in today's market is a significant accomplishment. "This £185m refinancing transaction is a testament to the strength of the Five Guys brand and our successful operational performance. "The latest capital injection will be instrumental in accelerating our expansion strategy." The deal comes as hospitality groups warn of an increasing challenge to survive following tax increases announced in Rachel Reeves's Budget last autumn, with chains such as Cote now exploring urgent sale processes in a bid to secure new investment.
Reuters
an hour ago
- Business
- Reuters
Musk's xAI to raise up to $12 billion in debt for AI expansion, WSJ reports
July 22 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is working with a financier to secure up to $12 billion more for its expansion plans, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the situation. Valor Equity Partners, an investment firm whose founder, Antonio Gracias, has close ties to Musk, is in talks with lenders to raise the capital, according to the report. The money would be used to buy a massive supply of advanced Nvidia (NVDA.O), opens new tab chips that would be leased to xAI for a new huge data center meant to help train and power its AI chatbot Grok, the WSJ reported. Valor and xAI did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Some lenders want the debt to be repaid within three years and to cap the amount of money borrowed in order to limit their risk, the report said. Training and deploying advanced AI systems is expensive, requiring costly hardware, intensive compute and skilled engineers in a highly competitive market where rivals such as OpenAI, Google and China's DeepSeek are trying to dominate the technology. XAI is training Grok on 230,000 graphics processing units, including Nvidia's 30,000 GB200 AI chips, in a supercluster, with inference handled by the cloud providers, Musk said in a post on X on Tuesday. He added that another supercluster will soon launch with an initial batch of 550,000 GB200 and GB300 chips. The AI startup was expected to burn through about $13 billion over the course of 2025, according to media reports. Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that xAI was in talks to raise more money in a deal that could value the AI startup between $170 billion and $200 billion. In response, Musk had said xAI was not seeking funding. "We have plenty of capital."
CTV News
2 hours ago
- Health
- CTV News
Ponoka hospital road closure first step in $15.3-million expansion
A hospital in Ponoka, Alta. has closed a road for construction, marking the start of a projected three-year, $15.3-million expansion and upgrade to the facility. Ponoka Hospital and Care Centre closed off 59 Street at 59 Avenue last week for what a news release said should be two to three weeks as part of an ongoing construction project. While pedestrians and motorists are advised to steer clear of the road, Alberta Health Services (AHS) said it won't disrupt access to the hospital itself. Construction crews are connecting underground water utilities in preparation for an expansion to the hospital's surgical department. Funded by the Alberta government, the hospital is also building an addition onto the northwest corner of the hospital. This will become the home to a 'modernized' medical device reprocessing department. AHS said the project comes at a time when their 'current focus is on reducing emergency department wait times, improving EMS response times, increasing access to surgeries and improving patient flow.' Communications director Brendan Procé told CTV News Edmonton that the work done at Ponoka will give residents 'improved access to surgical services.' Procé confirmed the work should be finished in 2028.
