Whitbread look to sell more pubs
Whitbread looks set to sell as many as 250 stand-alone pub restaurants in a move that could raise upwards of £600m.
The company will retain 271 pub restaurants that have a Premier Travel Inn (PTI) next door. The remaining 350 sites will be reviewed site-by-site to see whether a smaller PTI can be accommodated. It is expected that around 100 sites will have the room for a PTI - with the remainder being sold. Mitchells & Butlers, Greene King, Wolves & Dudley and Mill House Inns are among the trade players expected to take a strong interest in the sale of the 250 sites.
Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker said: "It is clear that the combination of a Premier Travel Inn and a pub restaurant is a compelling customer proposition and provides industry leading returns."
The sale of around 40% of Whitbread pub restaurant division comes as like-for-like sales fell by 1.8%.
Panmure Gordon analyst Douglas Jack said: "This is a poor performance in a sub-sector that is enjoying demand growth in eating out."
Of the pubs to be sold, analyst Mark Brumby, of Oriel Securities, said: "These are some of the finest freehold pub-restaurant sites in the country and there should be no shortage of buyers. Mitchells & Butlers, for example, having missed S&N retail twice would give its eyeteeth for these units."
