You may have been aware that Jeremy King and Chris Corbin - the restaurateurs behind some of London's best-known restaurants, like the Wolseley and Brasserie Zedel - had been in a battle with their shareholders over the future of the business.
The background is a bit complicated, but in essence they were in dispute with their minority shareholder - a Thai hotel group called Minor Hotels. Minor had brought in administrators saying that the restaurant business had a dept it couldn't pay.
Corbin & King disputed that and the two have been at loggerheads ever since. But this morning, in an email that was sadly not an April Fool, Jeremy King revealed that their attempts to buy out Minor had failed and, instead, they had lost control of the company.
"We took part in the auction," he wrote, "to try and buy the business and assets of Corbin & King that we didn’t already own, including of course all the restaurants. Regrettably, that attempt failed and Minor Hotel Group was the successful bidder, buying the entire business."
"As a result, I no longer have any equity interest in the business although, for the time being, I remain an employee. I assume Minor will take immediate control of the restaurants."
What this means, in practice, to the throngs of diners who love their restaurants isn't completely clear. "It remains to be seen how the transition will be effected," admitted Jeremy. However, later in the morning, Sky News reported that he was indeed leaving the company.
The real key here is that Corbin and King really ARE their restaurants. King in particular is usually seen at every one of his restaurants every night, travelling between them all. Losing him is a big loss and really throws the future of the group as it is into doubt.
All this must be very hard for the restaurateur duo. It's not the first time they've had these kinds of problems, having lost control of their Mayfair hotel, The Beaumont, which was then bought by the Barclay twins.
We'll bring you more on this story as it develops.
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