The future of TGI Fridays restaurants in the UK is in doubt amid fears the hospitality group behind it could collapse following a failed to buy the US owner of the brand.Administrators are now on standby at the British arm of TGI, which has 87 outlets in the UK, amid concerns the famous name could vanish from the high street.Hostmore, which owns TGI in this country, is now scrambling to sell the franchise so it can continue to operate under new ownership and save thousands of jobs.In a stock market update last Monday, Hostmore said sales so far this year are 12 per cent lower than the same period last year, blaming ‘persistent warmer weather than the comparative period in 2023 and underlying weak consumer spending’. The company also said it had abandoned plans to buy all the TGI restaurants in the US, where there are 128 sites, in a deal that would have been worth £177million. TGI Fridays has 87 restaurants across the UK, having been founded in New York in 1965  Administrators are now on standby at the British arm of TGI, which has 87 outlets in the UKRestructuring experts at Teneo are now trying to find potential buyers for TGI in the UK as senior creditors try to get back some the money they loaned the firm. How TGI Fridays started life in New York as a circus-themed eatery TGI Fridays was founded in New York in 1965 when the first restaurant was opened by Alan Stillman on the corner of 63rd Street and 1st Avenue.The themed restaurants – whose name stands for ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ were inspired by circus performances and became known for their bartenders mixing cocktails in dramatic fashion.It took until 1986 for TGI to arrive in Britain when it opened in Birmingham, before the first London outlet came along in Covent Garden a year later.By 1993 there were 12 UK restaurants, while the total had hit 41 by 2004.In 2007, the UK chain was bought by Carlson Restaurants Worldwide and ABN Amro Capital, before Electra Private Equity invested in the group in 2014 and its total hit 66 sites.In 2020, Hostmore came out of Electra in 2021 and the chain now has 87 outlets – but faces an uncertain future given its parent company’s struggles. Hostmore had £35million in outstanding borrowings at the end of last year with an estimated 3,000 jobs now under threat, reported the Daily Telegraph.Any asset sales to help repay its main lenders, NatWest and HSBC, must now be reached by the end of this month.But Hostmore has warned that the sale of its UK restaurants – part of a plan to become a larger fully franchise-operated business with restaurants on both sides of the Atlantic – will not ‘recover any meaningful value’.The company said this means it will instead be ‘wound up and delisted’ from the stock market in London once the sale of TGI is completed.It added that TGI would continue to operate under new ownership, it added.While Teneo is now poised to oversee any liquidation, another firm could still be appointed to handle the process, sources told the newspaper.And it has not been confirmed whether all of TGI’s restaurants could be saved – or just a selection, with others potentially being taken over by another chain. Hostmore has had a short and terrible run as a public company, having come out of private equity trust Electra in November 2021.While its shares started trading at 147p and got up to 156p on the opening day, they had more than halved by March 2022 and lost 90 per cent within a year.Concerns among investors were linked to profit warnings, mounting debts and the number of loss-making TGIs it owns. The share price was at 0.25p today.Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, told MailOnline today: ‘The collapse of Hostmore’s expansion plan is a huge blow and one that implies there may be to no value left in the listed business for shareholders. TGI’s owner said sales so far this year are 12 per cent lower than the same period last year Hostmore is now scrambling to sell the TGI franchise in the UK so it can continue to operate ‘Having operated under the TGI Fridays brand in the UK for some time, Hostmore had been trying to buy the global master franchise owner. It was a bold deal from the start, given how Hostmore has struggled as a listed company from the very start.’TGI Fridays is a name that now has more connotations with ‘remember the days’ nostalgia TV shows looking at past lives, rather than something that still holds its own against a growing number of modern chains.’He added that the US buyout would have ‘significantly increased Hostmore’s scale and given it a big presence in America’ as well as releasing Hostmore ‘from the shackles of an existing franchise deal, which is described as restrictive’.Mr Mould explained that the acquisition was scrapped after the UK group was removed as the manager of TGIF Funding, which owns the right to collect royalties from the TGI Friday’s restaurant franchise. He continued: ‘Without control over the royalty stream, the acquisition looks far, far less appetising.’ Hostmore has also abandoned plans to buy TGI Fridays in the US, where there are 128 sites TGI opened its first UK restaurant in Birmingham in 1986, then another in London one year laterHe added: ‘The company’s share price crashed after an expansion plan went up in smoke, implying there is little to no value left in the listed business for shareholders.’TGI was founded in New York in 1965 but the first UK outlet did not open until 1986 when it came to Birmingham – followed by London’s Covent Garden a year later.The original restaurant was opened by Alan Stillman on the corner of 63rd Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan and was inspired by circus performances.The name stands for ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ and the restaurants quickly became known for their bartenders mixing cocktails in dramatic fashion.MailOnline has contacted Hostmore and TGI for comment.