Around 20 restaurants and bars in an iconic chain are in danger of closing, according to reports. TGI Fridays has been a fixture on UK high streets and shopping centres since 1986 with the opening of its first restaurant on Birmingham’s Hagley Road.

Now it has 49 UK sites – but new reports say that despite taking over the chain just two months ago Sugarloaf TGIF Management are already planning to sell the business to a new owner.

Around 20 of the chain’s 49 UK sites are believed to be facing permanent closure and hundreds of jobs are expected to be lost alongside the sites, Sky Money reported. The exact 20 at risk have not been revealed yet.

TGI Fridays is reportedly planning to buy back a cut-down version of the gaudy US restaurant chain. The parent company of TGI Fridays in the UK initially agreed to acquire the chain for £177million in April last year.

Liberty Bar and Restaurant Group, which runs TGI Fridays’ UK operations, filed a notice of its intent to appoint administrators on December 19.

It came two weeks after the business had filed a previous administration notice. Filing the notice is part of a legal process which will halt debt collection and provide the company with another 10 days to find a new buyer or investment.

All the group’s UK restaurants continued to operate as normal over the Christmas period but new information on the future has come to light. The company, which has more than 2,000 staff, is working with experts from advisory firm Interpath.

TGI Fridays first opened in New York in 1965 with a party-led theme and continues to operate a string of restaurants in the US.

After its previous UK operator fell into administration, its remaining restaurants were acquired by private equity firms Breal Capital and Calveton UK last year.

The chain collapsed into administration in September and put 87 restaurants up for sale, but was rescued last October by Breal Capital and Calverton in a deal that saved dozens of restaurants but still closed 36.

Then, in November last year TGI Fridays in the UK was acquired by Sugarloaf TGIF Management, which is run by the chain’s previous chief executive, Ray Blanchette.

The move preserved its remaining 49 restaurants and 2,000 jobs, but now 20 of the remaining sites are expected close and hundreds of jobs will be lost with them.

A TGI Fridays spokesperson told Sky: “TGI Fridays UK is still assessing all options for the future of the business.

“No decisions have been made yet and locations continue to operate as usual.”

Full list of 49 TGI Fridays currently trading

TGI Fridays Aberdeen Beach

TGI Fridays Aberdeen Union Square

TGI Fridays Ashton-Under-Lyne

TGI Fridays Basildon

TGI Fridays Birmingham NEC

TGI Fridays Bluewater

TGI Fridays Bolton

TGI Fridays Bournemouth

TGI Fridays Braehead

TGI Fridays Braintree

TGI Fridays Cardiff St David’s

TGI Fridays Castleford

TGI Fridays Cheadle

TGI Fridays Cheshire Oaks

TGI Fridays Coventry

TGI Fridays Crawley

TGI Fridays Cribbs Causeway

TGI Fridays Doncaster

TGI Fridays Edinburgh

TGI Fridays Fareham

TGI Fridays Glasgow Buchanan Street

TGI Fridays Glasgow Fort

TGI Fridays High Wycombe

TGI Fridays Lakeside Quay Centre

TGI Fridays Lakeside Retail Park

TGI Fridays Leeds Junction 27

TGI Fridays Leeds White Rose

TGI Fridays Liverpool One

TGI Fridays London Stratford City

TGI Fridays London The O2

TGI Fridays Meadowhall

TGI Fridays Metrocentre Gateshead

TGI Fridays Milton Keynes

TGI Fridays Milton Keynes Stadium

TGI Fridays Norwich

TGI Fridays Nottingham

TGI Fridays Reading

TGI Fridays Rushden Lakes

TGI Fridays Sheffield

TGI Fridays Silverburn

TGI Fridays Southampton Retail Park

TGI Fridays Staines

TGI Fridays Stevenage

TGI Fridays Teesside

TGI Fridays Telford

TGI Fridays Trafford Centre

TGI Fridays Walsall

TGI Fridays Watford Central

TGI Fridays Wembley