The news that JP Morgan, the American finance house, may be interested in buying 800 former Whitbread pubs will no doubt get some observers of the pub scene frothing at yet another overseas banker buying into our heritage.
It is remarkable how the ownership changes among Britain's pub estates are so little understood by commentators who are meant to be paid to deliver insightful analysis of trends and strategies. Too many
have greeted the arrival of Nomura, Morgan Grenfell, WestLB and the other financiers as if these businessmen and women are here to grind the faces of honest British publicans, allow the pubs they have acquired to run into decay while they push rents into the loft, and then flee abroad back to Japan and Germany with bulging bags of gold.
A lack of knowledge of how investment works might be understandable among writers on the Guardian, but it is unforgiveable for the trade press to print stories that will frighten pub tenants while making bankers sneer at their failure to understand business.
Banks, of course, do not buy assets to let them decay, nor do they buy assets to run themselves. Royal Bank of Scotland may be one of Britain's biggest pub owners, but it is not, as it will firmly insist, a pub operator û it leaves that to the professionals, who manage its assets for it. RBS is probably one of Britain's biggest farm owners and shop landlords as well, but it doesn't run farms or fit out dress shops either.
The new owners of Britain's pubs know how to invest, how to securitise and how to manage finances, and how to give their own shareholders a sustainable, satisfactory medium-to-long term return. They know that professional pub operators operate the best pubs, just as professional bankers run the best banks, and neither should try to do the other's job.
It is remarkable how the ownership changes among Britain's pub estates are so little understood by commentators who are meant to be paid to deliver insightful analysis of trends and strategies. Too many
have greeted the arrival of Nomura, Morgan Grenfell, WestLB and the other financiers as if these businessmen and women are here to grind the faces of honest British publicans, allow the pubs they have acquired to run into decay while they push rents into the loft, and then flee abroad back to Japan and Germany with bulging bags of gold.
A lack of knowledge of how investment works might be understandable among writers on the Guardian, but it is unforgiveable for the trade press to print stories that will frighten pub tenants while making bankers sneer at their failure to understand business.
Banks, of course, do not buy assets to let them decay, nor do they buy assets to run themselves. Royal Bank of Scotland may be one of Britain's biggest pub owners, but it is not, as it will firmly insist, a pub operator û it leaves that to the professionals, who manage its assets for it. RBS is probably one of Britain's biggest farm owners and shop landlords as well, but it doesn't run farms or fit out dress shops either.
The new owners of Britain's pubs know how to invest, how to securitise and how to manage finances, and how to give their own shareholders a sustainable, satisfactory medium-to-long term return. They know that professional pub operators operate the best pubs, just as professional bankers run the best banks, and neither should try to do the other's job.
