Soho House ’s billionaire chairman has revived efforts to take the private members’ club off the US stock market, backing a near $1.8bn (£1.4bn) buyout bid.
Ron Burkle and a consortium of investors have signalled they are prepared to take the UK-founded business private at $9 per share – an 83pc premium to its closing share price on Wednesday – after arguing markets had undervalued the group.
Shares climbed by more than 60pc in early trading to $7.85 in New York – valuing Soho House at more than $1.5bn.
The potential buyout comes months after Soho House explored a delisting but rejected an offer from an unidentified bidder in May.
Launched from a town house on Soho’s Greek Street in 1995, the business has expanded to 45 clubs around the world.
Mr Burkle listed the business in 2021 with the group achieving a $2.8bn valuation. Mr Burkle, Nick Jones, the Soho House founder, and Richard Caring, the restaurateur, own 75pc of Soho House between them.
The members’ club has counted celebrities such as Kate Moss and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex as members over the years.
Despite a typical London membership setting back patrons almost £3,000 per year, its stock has plunged by more than two thirds since listing, with Soho House struggling to turn around almost 30 years of loss-making.
A short-selling attack in February compared the business to the formerly bankrupt co-working business WeWork, alleging Soho House had a “broken business model and terrible accounting”.
Soho House said the report included “factual inaccuracies, analytical errors and false and misleading statements”.
On Thursday, Mr Burkle and his fund, Yucaipa Companies, said they believed the “inherent value of the company is not reflected in its current share price”. The deal would see Mr Burkle roll over his shares into the private entity.
Mr Burkle, a 72-year-old American, began his career reviving struggling grocery stores before building a hospitality, food and logistics empire. He is worth $2bn.
He acquired a majority stake in Soho House from Mr Caring, who owns The Ivy , in 2012. Mr Jones, who founded Soho House, stepped down as chief executive in 2022 to recover from cancer.
Mr Burkle has previously raised tens of millions of dollars in donations to the Democratic Party and was once seen as a close ally of Bill Clinton.
He was also a friend of Sean Combs, known as P Diddy, once hosting a birthday party for the rapper. Mr Combs is facing US charges of sex trafficking, which he denies.
On Thursday, Soho House reported a 4.8pc increase in members, to 267,494. Its waiting list currently sits at 111,000.
Revenues climbed by 13.6pc to $333.4m, while it reported a net income of $200,000.
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