Indian restaurant chain Tiffinbites has snapped up the Bombay Bicycle Club from Clapham House for £4.4m.

The Bombay Bicycle Club runs three eat-in restaurants and 15 takeaways across London. Clapham said it would use the sale proceeds to pay down its bank debts and plough money into the development of its other restaurant brands - Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Tootsies and The Real Greek.

Clapham scaled back expansion plans last December when it issued a shock profits warning after being hit by spiralling food costs and rent increases.

Shares in the Aim-listed company jumped by 10.5p to 90p on news of the sale, a rise of 13%.

Tiffinbites currently runs four restaurants serving healthy, low-fat Indian food to City workers at St Paul's, Canary Wharf, Moorgate and Liverpool Street. When it first entered the Square Mile five years ago it became known for its takeaways in traditional tiffin boxes - several stacked boxes with a carry handle, each box containing individual portions of curry dishes.

Tiffinbites was founded by Jamal Hirani and Jonathan Marks who met at Marks & Spencer where they were buyers, and saw an opportunity in selling healthy Indian food to City workers. "I was working in the City and missing my mum's cooking," Hirani has said. Tiffinbites now delivers 2,000 lunches daily to big company offices such as O2 in Slough and Barclays Capital in Canary Wharf.

David Page, the Clapham founder and chairman, said at the end of last month that the company's chains had frequently attracted interest over the years and that it had waited for the "right time" to sell. Clapham itself has also been the subject of bid speculation.

Its chief executive Paul Campbell said: "While we are sad to see the Bombay Bicycle Club leave our portfolio, it is predominantly a home delivery business with a different pricing point and a longer period for return on capital than our other brands."

He said it was important to bolster the company's balance sheet at the current time of economic slowdown and focus on its other, pure restaurant businesses.

Bombay Bicycle Club made a loss before tax of £484,000 in the year to end March, and its assets were worth £2.4m.

Clapham is taking a one-off £1.9m hit from writing off goodwill on Bombay Bicycle Club.