Luke Johnson is in line for a £12.2m payout from the sale of Elegant Hotels, the owner of seven luxury resorts in the Caribbean.

The former Pizza Express and Patisserie Valerie boss is cashing in after Marriott International, the hotel group that owns the Sheraton, Westin and Renaissance brands, announced a deal to buy Elegant Hotels, which is listed on the UK’s junior Aim market, for £100.8m.

Johnson, who became Elegant’s largest shareholder when he bought 12.5% of the company’s shares in 2016 for about 70p a share, became a non-executive director in 2017.

The 110p-a-share Elegant deal is a shard of good news for the serial entrepreneur who lost millions of pounds when Patisserie Valerie, the cafe group he chaired, collapsed amid an accounting fraud investigation early this year. The cafe chain was sold to the Irish private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners.

Brighton Pier Group, which Johnson chairs, also issued a profits warning.

Elegant shareholders were urged last year to boot Johnson off the board because of his many other directorships, which at the time included London’s Almeida theatre, the Gail’s bakery owner, Bread Holdings, and Patisserie Valerie.

Elegant, which was formed in 1998, owns the upmarket Italian restaurant Daphne’s and seven luxury hotels on Barbados.

Simon Sherwood, the non-executive chairman of Elegant, said directors were unanimously recommending Marriott’s offer to shareholders.

He said: “The board of Elegant Hotels is confident in the group’s long-term prospects but believes that this offer represents compelling value for our shareholders and a great opportunity for our employees to be part of one of the world’s leading hotel companies.

“The fact that Elegant Hotels has attracted the interest of a company of Marriott’s calibre is a resounding endorsement of the outstanding quality of our properties, operations and people, and indeed of Barbados as a highly desirable destination.”

Arne M Sorenson, the president and chief executive of Marriott, said: “There is a strong and growing consumer demand for premium and luxury properties in the all-inclusive category.

“The addition of the Elegant Hotels portfolio will help us further jumpstart our expansion in the all-inclusive space while providing more choices on the breathtaking island of Barbados for our 133 million Marriott Bonvoy members.”