Private members' club chain Soho House has been snapped up for $2.7bn (£2bn) by a consortium involving Hollywood actor turned investor Ashton Kutcher.
The group opened its first club in London in 1995, and now has 46 Soho Houses in Europe, North America and Asia, as well a string of other up-market hospitality businesses.
It is widely regarded as being a popular haunt of A-list celebrities, and one of its London venues was reportedly where Prince Harry and Meghan Markle had their first date.
But since it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021 the value of its shares has dropped sharply, as it struggled to make a profit amid a sense that it had lost the exclusivity it once had.
The agreed offer price of $9 a share is 18% higher than the price at close of trade on Friday. However, it is still below the peak of $14.21 per share which was reached in August 2021.
The consortium is led by MCR Hotels, the third-biggest US hotel group, whose high profile properties include the TWA Hotel at JFK Airport in New York and the BT Tower in London. The deal to return Soho House to private ownership was done by private equity firm Apollo.
Existing Soho House shareholders will hold onto their stakes in the company. They include founder Nick Jones, husband of the presenter Kirsty Young, as well as Ivy Collection restaurant chain boss Richard Caring.
Ashton Kutcher will become a board member, as will the boss of MCR, Tyler Morse.
Mr Morse said everyone at MCR was "excited to be part of the Soho House journey".
"We have long admired Soho House for bringing together cultures from around the world into a global network of 46 houses, and we look forward to the continued growth of that fabric, starting with four new houses opening soon."
