The rate of pub failures at Enterprise Inns (ETI) is slowing thanks to some stabilisation in beer volumes, improved food sales and a decrease in cost pressures.
As a result, the company said it was also seeing the amount of financial help it gave to tenants reducing.
Unveiling a pre-close statement for the year to 30 September 2009, ETI said its core estate “continues to demonstrate resilience in challenging conditions”, but it added there had been no material change in performance since the interim management statement, when group ebitda was down by 12%.
The group, which recently announced it was starting a sale and leaseback process of seven pubs at auction, said it had disposed of 365 pubs in the year and these “poorer quality outlets” achieved net proceeds of £103m, which was “in line with book value”.
The disposal programme would continue throughout the coming year, explained ETI.
Discussing debt, the company said in a statement: “We have maintained an ongoing dialogue with our advisers and the members of our banking syndicate and remain confident that adequate debt facilities will be available at the time of our refinancing, which we expect to take place before the end of the next financial year.”
ETI currently has a bank-syndicated facility of £1bn, which pays interest at 80 basis points over LIBOR and is due for renewal in May 2011.
It also has £1.6bn securitised bonds that amortise over 22 years and attract a fixed rate of interest of approximately 6.5% until final maturity. The company said it was currently £64m ahead of the amortisation schedule.
Plus it has £1.2bn corporate bonds that are non-amortising and attract a fixed rate of interest of approximately 6.5%. The next scheduled maturities are £60m in February 2014 and £600m in March 2018.
The company will unveil its preliminary results on 17 November 2009.
