Signature Restaurants – which owns celebrity haunts The Ivy and Le Caprice – is reported to have been sold for around £20m, according to The Guardian.

Retail entrepreneur Richard Caring, who recently paid £130m for the Wentworth golf club in Surrey, is believed to have bought the chain of six upmarket London restaurants – which also includes J Sheekey, Daphne’s, Bam-Bou and Pasha.

The sale would leave Signature with 23 Strada pizzerias, two Belgo restaurants and three Bierodrome sites.

Signature could not be reached for comment this morning.