Thwaites nets £77.5m from hotel sale

Lancashire brewer and operator Daniel Thwaites has confirmed the sale of the Stafford Hotel in St James's Palace, London for £77.5m in cash.

The hotel was acquired by Britannia Hospitality, owned by the wealthy EL Sharkawy family. Britannia is now looking for suitable operators.

The hotel had a turnover of £9.5m for the year to 31 March and contributed £2.7m in operating profit to the company. Thwaites will realise a book profit on the sale of £13m and a revaluation surplus of around £18m.

"The company intends to utilise the net proceeds, after making an agreed payment into the company's defined benefit pension scheme, in reducing the bank borrowings of the group and to fund on-going working capital requirements of the group," a spokesman said.

"Future interest payments will, however, continue to be subject to existing hedging arrangements which will remain in place, and total interest charges in the current financial year will therefore not be materially reduced."

Guinness Peat, which holds 6% of Daniel Thwaite's shares, had previously argued that the group should not sell the hotel at the current stage in the property cycle.