UPG restaurants merger places a Neil Perry payday on the menu

Chef Neil Perry is set to roll his collection of restaurants and burger bars into the Urban Purveyor Group.

Celebrity chef Neil Perry. Picture: Adam Ward

In a deal that will see one of Australia’s most prestigious restaurant groups merge with one of its most aggressively expansive ­rivals, celebrity chef Neil Perry will roll his substantial collection of restaurants and burger bars — loosely known as The Rockpool Group — into the ­Sydney-based Urban Purveyor Group from next week.

UPG is the hospitality arm of private-equity fund Quadrant.

The deal, announced last night, will create one of the nat­ion’s biggest restaurant collections under the one corporate umbrella, combining UPG’s brands Sake, Fratelli Fresh, The Cut, ­Bavarian Bier Cafe, El Camino and Cafe Ananas — 32 venues in all — with Perry’s six Rockpool, Spice Temple and Rosetta rest­aurants, as well as its seven-strong Burger Project offshoot.

The long-rumoured merger comes on the back of an internal restructure at Perry Inc that has seen major equity-holder David Doyle, a Californian IT multi-millionaire, cash out of the partnership.

Banking sources close to the deal told The Weekend Australian it was worth about $60 million. Perry’s other business partner, his cousin Trish Richards, will stay on in the new ­entity’s management team.

For Perry, it’s payday on a ­career that saw him fly high in the 1990s with ventures such as Wockpool, Star Grill, the MCA Cafe in the Rocks, several noodle bars and Bistro Mars, only to lose nearly everything, forcing a ­corporate reboot with just Rockpool, then still in its original ­location in Sydney’s Rocks.

Perry’s metamorphosis over the past 10 years from one of the country’s most respected chefs to major player in the premium restaurant business was made possible by Doyle’s investment, which began in 2005.

It is no secret in the restaurant world, however, that the pair have fallen out.

Some within the industry have likened Perry’s new corporate reality to that of “an arranged marriage”.

Announcing the merger last night, UPG’s Tom Pash predicted the new entity would grow from 47 venues to 80 within the next 12 months.

Of note will be a Sydney version of Rosetta, Perry’s Crown Melbourne Italian fine diner.

The deal excludes Perry’s high-­profile consultancy with Qantas and a more recently forged partnership with the ­retailer David Jones.

The chef’s flagship fine diner 11 Bridge Street, rebranded from Rockpool 1989 earlier this year in the lead-up to the merger, has also been quarantined from the UPG deal.

Perry will take equity in Urban Purveyor, which seems destined for a stockmarket float, and assume the role of “head of culinary” for the entire group, which is set to be rebranded as the Rockpool Dining Group.