Cains Beer Company, the brewer and pub operator in administration, does not own the freehold property of its Liverpool brewery, M&C Report has learnt.
The Dusanj brothers, who rescued the Cains business in 2002, are thought to own the brewery freehold through a separate property company, despite the collapse of Cains earlier this month.
Until the company was placed with administrators at Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC), it had been paying a rent to the Dusanj family in the region of £0.5m per year.
It is also believed that brothers Ajmail and Sudarghara Dusanj control a company that owns about 10 of Cains’ freehold pubs – the pub operator had again been paying an annual rent on these properties – which are also not believed to subject to the current administration process.
PwC was appointed to find a buyer for the Cains business after its lead bank, Bank of Scotland, withdrew its support for the group.
The company, which is thought to have debts of between £40m and £45m, recently announced half-year losses of £4.6m. It revealed that the interest costs to service its debts had risen from £0.07m a year ago to £1.2m, in the six-month period.
The Cains business operates an estate of about 115 pubs, of which about 85 are leasehold, including the 10 controlled by the Dusanj brothers.
Cains was rescued six years ago by entrepreneurs Ajmail and Sudarghara Dusanj when they acquired it from the Danish Brewery Group. When the duo stepped in, in 2002, it was faced with closure for the second time in 12 years, after closing briefly in 1990 under Whitbread’s ownership.
Last year’s acquisition of Honeycombe Leisure – coupled with an acceleration in volume decline in the beer market – has been sited as one of the key factors in the company’s fall.
Both the brewery and pubs will trade as normal as PwC seeks a buyer to take control of the business as a going concern.
