Nando's 'not in crisis talks over debt'

Chicken chain Nando's has denied media reports that it is in debt crisis talks after spending £20m on Covid-proofing for its UK restaurants.

Accounts filed at Companies House show that the chain's parent firm raised £100m from shareholders in September.

But a spokeswoman told the BBC that Nando's UK was "a strongly performing business in normal times" and that talk of a crisis was untrue.

She said it was not currently in any detailed talks with banks.

In the year to 23 February, Nando's Group Holdings, including its UK operation, saw revenues rise 4.2% to £1.1bn.

In that period, it opened 24 new UK restaurants, bringing the total to 434. UK revenues went up 2.8% to £801.5m, with pre-tax profit down from £96m to £70.4m.

Nando's said its restaurants in the UK were now open again, with the exception of its Gatwick Airport outlet.

Fears over the financial health of the firm were sparked by a report in the Telegraph newspaper which said that the increase in its debt pile had led to crisis talks.

But Nando's spokeswoman said that "just isn't true".

She said the next covenant test on the firm's loans was six months away.

"Given the rapidly changing situation, there are no detailed talks with banks on this yet," she added.

"Clearly if the vaccine roll-out progresses, we will be in a different position then than now, but in general, Nando's have had ongoing and constructive talks with all their banks."

The spokeswoman said those discussions had always taken place "in an orderly and pre-emptive fashion".