Pizza Express has been bought for £900m by a Chinese firm which plans to roll out the British restaurant chain in the world's most populous country.
Hony Capital won an auction process ahead of Citic, another Chinese investment group, and four other private equity firms in what is the biggest European restaurant sector deal in the last five years.
Pizza Express opened its first outlet in Beijing two months ago. It already has 12 restaurants in Hong Kong and nine in Shanghai.
The Pizza Express chief executive, Richard Hodgson, said the sale was a positive development for the 504-outlet chain: "Asia is a key part of our future growth strategy and Hony's expertise in this region will be invaluable. We are looking forward to working with them on this as well as our ambitious UK growth plans."
Hodgson and the management team will remain with the business following the deal.
Hony Capital's chief executive, John Zhao, said he was pleased to acquire what he described as a well-established and exciting brand.
"With PizzaExpress, we have the opportunity to leverage our local expertise to accelerate its growth in the Chinese market, as well as to continue to drive its business forward in the UK," he said.
The company aims to open another 200 restaurants in the UK.
The chain, which was founded in Soho, central London, in 1965, has changed hands several times, with Cinven buying it for £1bn at the end of 2006 shortly before the financial crash. The company fell to a pre-tax loss of £79m after £110m of interest payments on its £1.2bn debt mountain, despite a 4.2% rise in Pizza Express total sales to £604.2m for the year to 30 June 2013. It employs 9,000 people worldwide.
The chain was owned between 1993 and 1999 by the entrepreneur Luke Johnson, a former Channel 4 and Royal Society of the Arts chairman, along with Hugh Osmond. During that time it expanded from 12 outlets in the UK to more than 250.
Pizza Express was the biggest asset in the Cinven-owned Gondala Group, which includes other "fast casual" chains Zizzi and ASK Italian. It sold the posh burger chain Byron to Hutton Collins in October 2013 for £100m and will now explore options for offloading its remaining two chains.