Four sites formerly operated by PBR Leisure, which was placed in administration last November, have been sold for a total of £4.2m, although creditors of the company are likely to lose more than £7m from PBR’s collapse.
A new report from PRB’s administrator Zolfo Cooper says that two sites were sold to Yorkshire brewer Theakston’s - the Waterside Hotel in Newcastle for £702,000 and the Boathouse in Durham for £1.25m - and a further two were acquired by Sixty Six Estates: the Lodge in Newcastle (£1.65m) and the Riverside in Newcastle (£600,500).
A decision was taken to surrender the lease on a fifth site that was being handled by ZOlfo Cooper, Prohibition Leeds, because costs of continuing to trade were “significant” and the realisable value of the leasehold was “minimal”.
According to the report, PBR’s unsecured creditors were owed an estimated £3.2m.
The secured creditors - the group of senior lenders including RBS (acting as the trustee), West Register Investments Limited, AIB Group (UK) and AIB Joint Ventures Limited) - were owed c£8.1m at the date of the administrator’s appointment. It’s expected that around half that sum would be repaid, and the figure to date is £3.6m.
PBR was placed into administration in November and at the time comprised seven pubs, restaurants and hotels spread across the north east and Belfast.
