Revolution Bars is planning to close a quarter of its venues as it tries to persuade investors to inject fresh capital into the business before an expected accelerated sale.
According to Sky News, the London-listed leisure company - which has a Revolution Bar on Belmont Street in Aberdeen, plus a Revolucion de Cuba in The Academy - is expected to start sale proceedings shortly.
In a drive to secure new capital of about £10million, greater than the company’s market value, via a share sale, Revolution Bars has proposed closing roughly 20 of its worst-performing venues.
One investor approached about the prospective share sale said it appeared to be dependent upon the successful implementation of a restructuring plan to close sites.
Without those taking place, the survival of the company would be in doubt with insolvency the only likely alternative, they added.
A significant number of jobs will be put at risk by the closures, which are expected to be concentrated on the Revolution-branded chain. It not known whether its Granite City venues are under consideration.
About 2,500 people work for the group, which floated in London for the second time in 2015.
It is unclear how many redundancies would arise from the restructuring, if it takes place, but one leisure industry source said it would be "in the hundreds".
Responding to the speculation this morning, Revolution CEO Rob Pitcher said the company had not received any takeover approaches, but was "considering all options".
He said: "Following a period of external challenges which have impacted the company's business and trading performance, the board is actively exploring all the strategic options available to it to improve the future prospects of the Group.
"These include a restructuring plan for certain parts of the group, a sale of all or part of the group and any other avenue to maximise returns for stakeholders. The company also confirms it is currently engaged with key shareholders and other investors including Luke Johnson in respect of a fundraising."