The sale of all 106 pubs that were formerly part of property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz’s pub empire has now been completed, with a total sale price believed to be comfortably in excess of £100m, M&C Report has learnt.
The portfolio, which has been marketed over the past three years, was originally part of the propco restructuring of Laurel Pub Company. The sales included 11 properties let to JD Wetherspoon, 13 Slug & Lettuce businesses, 35 Yates’s and 47 traditional unbranded public houses, mostly let to subsidiary companies of Stonegate Pub Company.
Fleurets handled the sale in conjunction with DTZ. The sites were held in three companies in administration: Yates Propco, Pumpster, and S&L Propco.
Sales have been a combination of group and individual transactions. Some of the largest have included a 12-strong package sold to a Luxembourg-based investor for a sum believed to be in excess of £17m last autumn, which followed soon after a c£15m acquisition of 10 sites by a private buyer.
Sales have included some prime central London properties. The virtual freehold of a flagship Slug and Lettuce site off Leicester Square was sold to West End property investment company Shaftsbury for c£4.5m in 2011.
Martin Willis of Fleurets, who handled the instructions, said: “We are pleased to have sold the last few properties, but now have a considerable number of investors looking to acquire leisure investments, but with limited stock available. The recent press comments that leisure assets are becoming more attractive due to the way rents are assessed, is definitely supported by our growing involvement in the investment market.”
Coffer Corporate Leisure acted for the majority of the buyers.
