Enterprise's Laurel buy may end ownership upheaval for licensees
Licensees are hoping for an end to recent uncertainty following the purchase of Laurel's 1,860-strong tenanted estate by Enterprise Inns.
The deal, worth £875m, was announced last week and will see Enterprise's estate grow to around 5,400 outlets, making it the UK's largest pub operator.
The move means yet another change of ownership for many of the Laurel licensees, some of whom have seen their outlet sold up to six times in as many years.
But licensee Gary McClure, whose own pub changed hands in the sale, said licensees had "real optimism" that the uncertainty was over. He added: "Enterprise has a proven track record of supporting licensees and isn't just in the business to make money."
Enterprise boss Ted Tuppen said: "I think staff and licensees are genuinely relieved to be back in the hands of people who are long-term owners of pubs."
But the latest deal comes just a month after a consortium, including Enterprise, bought Nomura's Unique and Voyager estates.
There is concern that if the pub giant uses its option to take on the 4,200-strong Nomura estate in two years, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) may intervene and could then force a sell-off of some of the outlets to avoid a situation in which Enterprise has a monopoly in certain regions.
A spokesman for the OFT said it was "unaware of the latest deal and would now be looking into the matter".
Although thePublican.com predicted a sale by Laurel late last year, Laurel chief executive Ian Payne (pictured) vehemently denied the rumours.
But Mr Payne told thePublican.com last week: "The offer was too good to refuse. We had approaches from other pub companies but because of the way Enterprise Inns is structured it could resolve problems that other companies couldn't."
Laurel will now concentrate on its managed estate of 606 pubs.
Related stories:
Laurel Pub Partnerships sold to Enterprise (12 April 2002)
Enterprise takes control of £2bn Nomura pubs (20 March 2002)
Punch eyes £5.5bn Laurel deal (5 November 2001)
Laurel to address £1.3bn debt (18 October 2001)
Laurel denies approach by Pubmaster (4 October 2001)
