Marston's sells a package of 279 pubs for £82.5m
11/05/2007
Brewer and pub operator Marston’s has sold a package of 279 tenanted pubs to commercial property investment group Piccadilly Licensed Properties for £82.5m in cash, which will be used to reduce debt.
Piccadilly is owned and controlled by AAIM group, which lists Sir David Frost, Manchester united manager Sir Alex Ferguson and X-factor judge Simon Cowell among its investors. Hoping to build a portfolio of 1,500 licensed premises, the company has recently appointed Colin Rowson, previously Yates’s finance chief, to its management team.
The pubs included in the sale generated an EBITDA of £7.5m for the year to September 2006, and as of 28th April had a gross asset value of £81.1m. Piccadilly has made an agreement with Scottish & Newcastle to manage the pubs.
The package includes mainly wet-lead pubs, thought to be most vulnerable to loss of trade following July’s smoking ban. The move follows the actions of many pub groups to offset losses caused by smoking bans across the country by converting pubs into food-serving facilities or selling off sites.
Chief executive at Marston’s, Ralph Findlay, commented: “The effects of this disposal are to increase the average quality of our tenanted and leased estate, and to place us in a better position to take advantage of positive market trends, including growth in pub dining.”
