Whitbread is to sell its UK TGI Friday’s restaurant chain and British Land has bought 15 of the property assets.

Whitbread has agreed a £70.4m deal to sell all its 45 TGI restaurants in the UK to TGI Friday’s UK Limited, a joint venture between Carlson Restaurants Worldwide and ABN AMRO Capital.

Carlson, a TGI Friday’s franchisee, has bought the operating business and 30 properties while the remaining 15 properties have been sold to British Land.

British Land has agreed to pay £48.37m for the portfolio, and simultaneously leased the 15 restaurants on 25 year leases linked to Retail Price Index (RPI) to the newly formed joint venture.

The portfolio will be put into British Land’s fixed-income portfolio which currently totals £1.8bn.

Whitbread opened the first TGI Friday’s restaurant in the UK in 1986.

Completion is conditional upon the acquisition receiving clearance

from the EU competition authorities.

Whitbread will initially use the proceeds from the transaction to pay down debt.

Savills advised British Land on the purchase.