Pippa’s favourite restaurant makes a £50m market debut

AN Algerian street boy who came to Britain on holiday in 1988 with only £70 is now worth £37m after the restaurant he began floated on the stock market.

Tony Kitous, who came to the UK when he was 18, began the Lebanese food restaurant Comptoir Libanais, after working as a waiter and a cleaner – and has seen it grow to become the favourite haunt of celebrities including Pippa Middleton, pictured.

After it floated on AIM the chain, which has 15 outlets largely in and around London, was valued at £50m. The float raised £16m, and gave a windfall to Kitous and his business partner, chief executive Chaker Hanna, who joined in 2010.

The pair owned 75pc and 25pc respectively and following the float, priced at 50p a share, they own 52pc and 15pc.

The funds raised will see £8m reinvested in the business to fund its expan- sion and £8m will be shared between Kitous and Hanna.

Kitous, 45, arrived in the UK from North Africa and lived on chocolate for the first few weeks before taking jobs to save money to eventually start his own business. He opened his first restaurant in 1993 and set up Comptoir 15 years later. He also has two Middle Eastern outlets called Shawa and two upmarket restaurants called Levant and Kenza. There are plans to expand Comptoir Libanais around the UK and overseas. New locations planned include Leeds, Bath and Exeter.

Kitous has said he wants Lebanese food to become as popular as Italian in the UK. Hanna, 55, said the float will help it bring ‘fresh, healthy, Lebanese dining to many more people across the UK’.

Shares closed up 34pc, or 17p to 67p a share.