Noble House to raise £50m from disposals
Noble House Leisure, the pub and restaurant group headed by entrepreneur Robert Breare (pictured) is to raise £50m from the sale of half the 214 pubs it bought from Scottish & Newcastle.
The group paid £97.1m for the package of pubs in June. It has just sold 17 houses to Avebury Taverns, the tenanted pub operator, for £9m.
It has also disposed of a £5m package to Trowbridge-based Innspired Inns and Taverns, the Alchemy Partners-backed pub company.
The disposals reflect Mr Breare's strategy of acquiring large packages and selling on the pubs that do not match the company's portfolio profile.
Noble House put more than half the pubs that it acquired from S&N on the market because they did not fit the strategy of building an estate of large town-centre and destination venues.
It is understood to have sold all but one of the 70 freehold properties for £45m and has agreed terms on about a third of the 30-plus leaseholds.
Avebury, backed by Cabot Square Capital, will convert 17 pubs to tenancy, taking its estate to more than 850. It has bought over 200 pubs this year alone.
Related stories:
Noble House to buy Whitbread pubs (24 October 2001)
Noble House Leisure "in talks" to buy Old English Inns (16 August 2001)
Pubs sale gives Whitbread "flying start" (02 May 2001)
Two bidders swoop on Wolves (20 April 2001)
