Property entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz has won the battle for La Tasca after US private equity firm The Blackstone Group ruled out a higher bid, and the Spanish tapas chain's board today switched its backing to the Tchenguiz consortium.

The La Tasca board's decision to switch its recommendation from Blackstone's offer to Tchenguiz and his partner Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank, came after the consortium netted more than a fifth of La Tasca's shares in a breakfast-time raid yesterday.