Tattershall Castle pubco off-loads 18 pubs
Tattershall Castle Group, the company that bought 178 high street sites from Sprit last August, has sold 18 leased sites to a new entrant, Free Spirit.
The company, which is owned by private equity company Alchemy Partners, has been looking to sell the 18 sites, which have very large rents attached to them, since it was formed. The sale price has not been disclosed but industry sources believe Tattershall Castle will have done well to have raised a combined £500,000 for the venues. The 18 pubs were part of a package of 200 pubs that Sprit sold in March 2004 to Prestbury for £500m in a sale-and-leaseback deal. Spirit had offered some very high rents to Prestbury at these sites to obtain high freehold payment. The Playhouse in Watergate, Grantham, one of the pubs now sold on by Tattershall, has a rent of £253,818 per annum - £5,000 a week. Tattershall Castle had to buy the 18 leaseback pubs as part of a bigger package that is freehold and long leasehold. Tattershall Castle chief executive Peter Brook said: "We've sold all the sale-and-leaseback pubs to a new entrant, one that has nothing whatsoever to do with Tattershall Castle Group." The sale of the 18 sites comes as Tattershall Castle embarks on a £8m investment project that will see 37 pubs refurbished by August this year. The company plans to invest £40m in capital expenditure on the estate over five years. Brook added: "A total of 37 capital expenditure projects will be completed by the end of August. We¹ll be looking to create a similar investment list for the subsequent year."
