Orchid, the £571m private equity-owned pub group, has been part rescued in a pre-pack administration deal.
The 287-strong Country Carvery and Sri Thai chain, collapsed into administration last week but PricewaterhouseCoopers, Orchid's administrator, sold 240 of the group's pubs back to GI Partners, Orchid's private equity backer.
Orchid's lenders, Bank of Scotland Corporate and Deutsche Bank, face hundreds of millions of pounds of writedowns and the group's unsecured creditors, including its landlords, will also lose out.
Bank of Scotland Corporate, which financed the £571m buyout of Orchid two years ago by GI Partners, drafted in the accountancy firm to advise on a financial restructuring earlier this month but the group went into administration at the weekend.
