The 45-strong chain of TGI Friday’s restaurants in the UK was sold to the brand’s American founder for £70.4m (€107.2m) today.
Leisure group Whitbread sold the sites to Carlson Restaurants Worldwide, which set up the first TGI Friday’s in New York in 1965.
The brand expanded abroad when Whitbread opened its first TGI Friday’s restaurant in 1986.
There are now sites in 41 cities in the UK employing 3,000 staff.
Whitbread put the restaurants up for sale in October last year as it looked to focus on its four main businesses: Premier Travel Inns, Costa Coffee, David Lloyd Leisure and its pub restaurants under the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre brands.
The deal does not affect TGI's Dublin branches.