Nightcap acquires The Piano Works
Nightcap, the bar operator led by Sarah Willingham, has acquired The Piano Works.
Nightcap, the bar operator led by Sarah Willingham, has acquired The Piano Works, the live entertainment concept.
Currently operating at Nightcap's Barrio Covent Garden venue and at a site in Farringdon, London, The Piano Works is an interactive live music entertainment business, typically involving pianists, vocalists and other musicians performing an audience-curated playlist.
STAMP Entertainment Limited, a recently incorporated, 100% owned subsidiary of Nightcap, has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire certain of the assets of TDC Concepts Limited, the operator of The Piano Works. Nightcap is paying a total consideration of £200,000 for the assets.
The Piano Works acquisition completed following a pre-pack administration process by TDCC. It is intended that the current directors of TDCC will become minority shareholders in STAMP.
Nightcap has said it plans for The Piano Works to become a permanent fixture at its Covent Garden site and for The Piano Works concept to be the rolled out along with the other successful brands in the Nightcap portfolio.
"The Piano Works is another excellent addition to our group," says Willingham. "I very much look forward to the future of this concept. It adds a whole new area of expertise to Nightcap and a different entertainment offer, bringing live music to our customers. We have known The Piano Works concept for a long time and look forward to working with the founders and their dedicated staff. After the very successful residency in our Barrio bar in Covent Garden at Christmas we are delighted to be able to partner with them and provide the opportunities to bring this great entertainment concept to other cities across the UK."
Further detail
In conjunction with The Piano Works acquisition and to provide working capital to STAMP, Nightcap has raised a total of £1m through a subscription of 16,666,666 of new ordinary shares in the company at 6p per share, being a premium of approximately 22% to Nightcap's last closing mid-market share price on 19 February 2024.
"Over the past eight years we have loved creating a communal and immersive experience for our many guests singing along to their favourite soundtracks," says Alan Lorrimer, founder of The Piano Works. "The past four years have been the toughest I have known in my 40 years in hospitality. We survived Covid, but when the sale of our Leicester Square venue fell through, it was the last financial straw.
"We transferred into Covent Garden thanks to a great collaboration with the Nightcap team. We had an excellent Christmas which proved we could work really well together. We now have the potential to expand The Piano Works and prove that customers across the country will love our immersive audience requested live music experience."
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