D&D London Forms Venture to Open Restaurant in Istanbul

D&D London Ltd., the restaurant group that owns Coq d’Argent and about 30 other restaurants, formed a joint venture with Borsa Restaurants and the Turkish entrepreneur Mehmet Ali Yalcindag to open in Istanbul.

The venture has secured a 14,000-square-foot (1,300 square- meter) site in Trump Towers and plans to open restaurants, private dining rooms, event spaces and a bar early in 2013.

D&D, whose venues include Paternoster Chop House and Le Pont de la Tour, said that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and one-time items rose 3 percent from a year earlier to 6.7 million pounds ($10.9 million) in the 12 months ended March 31. Revenue from London restaurants open at least a year increased by four percent.

“I am very optimistic about our prospects for the current financial year and beyond,” Chairman and Chief Executive Des Gunewardena said today in an e-mailed statement. “Our new joint-venture partnership in Turkey will mark another exciting step.”

In recent weeks, D&D has added two new establishments serving the City of London financial district: South Place Hotel, and Old Bengal Warehouse, which consists of two restaurants, a wine shop and a bar.

(Richard Vines is the chief food critic for Muse, the arts and leisure section of Bloomberg News. He is U.K. and Ireland chairman of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Opinions expressed are his own.)

Muse highlights include Hephzibah Anderson on books, Mark Beech on music and John Mariani on wine.

To contact the writer on the story: Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net or http://twitter.com/Richardvines.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Manuela Hoelterhoff at mhoelterhoff@bloomberg.net.

Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London, says he's optimistic for the restaurant company's prospects. D&D is expanding into Turkey in a joint venture. Source: D&D London via Bloomberg.