Rooney Anand is looking to build up an estate of around 250 pubs over the next five years throughout RedCat – his new venture launched in February this year.
Starting with a pot of around £500m: £200m of backing from Oaktree Capital and as much as £300 of bank debt – he is understood to have already worked his way through around a third of the funds available, with 92 pubs already acquired, The Times has reported.
“We are taking a half billion bet on the pub industry,” he told the paper. “Some people have called it a brave move, some have called it a vanity project. But I’m a huge believer in the sector.”
Rooney, like others, is looking to capitalise on the opportunities that have arisen from the pandemic and is not focused on one particular type of asset.
RedCat’s acquisitions so far include single drink-led pubs, to coaching inns, with its largest acquisition a package of 42 sites from Stonegate.
Aside from the fact they are all freehold assets, “there’s no fixed playbook,” he said.
Despite the pace at which he has been making acquisitions this year, Rooney is insistent that he is “not trying to rebuild Greene King”. He wants the business to be small, nimble and entrepreneurial.
“First and foremost this is a real estate play. We can acquire assets in the right place at the right price, invest capital in them, run them well and improve the earnings, then improve the yield and the valuation,” he said.
“Then at some point, when we sell in a rising market, we’ll be able to deliver attractive returns for our investors.”
