The Pizza Express restaurant chain – which owns Milano in Ireland – has been sold to Chinese firm Hony Capital for £900 million.

Pizza Express has 436 restaurants in Britain, 12 in Hong Kong and nine in Shanghai. In Ireland, it has 12 Milano restaurants.

The chain is owned by the Gondola Group which confirmed the sale to Chinese private equity firm Hony.

“This transaction is the largest in the European restaurant sector in the past five years,” Gondola and Hony said in a joint statement.

"Under Gondola's ownership, Pizza Express has built a strong management team, led by Richard Hodgson, which will remain with the business," they added.