Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne says he is close to securing a Newcastle City Centre site to relocate his casino operation.

The entrepreneur made the shock decision to close his 22,000sqft Bannatyne Casino on Sandgate near the Quayside two months ago.

At the time Damian Aspinall, the operator of the Aspers casino in The Gate centre in Newcastle, ran jubilant full page press adverts celebrating the apparent demise of his rival's business, under Mr Bannatyne's TV catchphrase "I'm out".

But now the "dragon" says he has made an offer on a city centre site and aims to open up a new casino on a similar scale to the old one.

Mr Bannatyne said: "We are very close to it. It's a site in the city centre and will be a similar size to the old site. The licence we have is for a specific size. We have made an offer."

When the original casino closed in September, Mr Bannatyne told The Journal he had already decided to move it to a new site, and had closed down simply because he was made a good offer by office developer Argon.

He said then he was still looking to develop three further UK casinos at a cost of around £18m, and the closure of the Quayside casino was not prompted by a slow-down in trade.

The 57-year-old businessman, speaking from honeymoon with new wife Joanne, also said Bannatyne Leisure was progressing with the integration of the 24 LivingWell gyms acquired from Hilton International for £90m in August.

And sales of his autobiography, Anyone Can Do It, are also said to be going well. Mr Bannatyne said 2,000 copies of the book were sold last week and he would be promoting it when he returned from holiday.

He said: "Bannatyne Fitness is going absolutely terrific. We have integrated LivingWell, and put its head office in Milton Keynes on the market.

"We are now expanding our head office in Darlington with an extra 20 full time employees, taking numbers to 55, and the company employs 3,500 nationwide."

Mr Bannatyne has a very high profile in the business world after his appearances on Dragon's Den and walk-on parts in films and TV shows, including School for Seduction.

His autobiography was published last month.

Yesterday he said: "My autobiography ... is now going for a reprint for a further 31,000. I have three book signings lined up for when I return from honeymoon."