'Banks bridle as Breare pub group falters'

The Mail on Sunday newspaper has reported that banks are hesitating to lend new money to Robert Breare's Noble House pubs and restaurants group after a severe downturn in trading.

The slump has forced Mr Breare to postpone plans to float Noble House and he has admitted that his retaurant arm is more than a year late in filing its accounts.

It is understood that the entrepreneur wanted access to existing credit facilities already agreed with his backers Botts & Co, and Bank of Scotland, to continue funding a refurbishment and expansion programme of his 150 pubs at a cost of £1m-a-week.

Apparently the banks took fright after learning performance at the 15 sites that have already been refurbished, was poor.

"Trading has fallen off a cliff," one insider told The Mail. "They were all doing badly so the banks got cold feet."

Mr Breare insisted there was no question over the refurbishment plans. "We are going through a £30m capital expenditure programme and we're about a third of the way through.

"Let's be absolutely clear - we have all the money in place. This will see us spend £1m a week through until January and then £500,000 a week until the summer.

"We are very hungry to grow our company up to 250 pubs. Like anyone going through expansion, we're doing a State of the Nation report and we're extremely positive."

Mr Breare is also looking for new investors, but says that the existing backers will remain.

The new target date for the group float is mid-2004.