NewRiver REIT to sell pubs business to Admiral Taverns for £222m

26th Jul 2021 09:15

(Sharecast News) - NewRiver REIT has agreed to sell its pubs business, Hawthorn Leisure REIT, to pub operator Admiral Taverns for around £222.3m in cash.
Chief executive officer Allan Lockhart said: "Over recent years, we have grown Hawthorn to become the UK's leading community and wet-led pub business. As a consequence of this, we received significant interest from a range of potential buyers for Hawthorn, following the divestment plan we announced in April 2021.

"We have now agreed the sale of Hawthorn which, once completed, will deliver on our key priority to reset loan to value, strengthening our balance sheet and enabling us to focus on executing our resilient retail strategy."

Headquartered in Chester, Admiral Taverns is a wet-led community pub operator, with around 1,000 pubs across England, Wales and Scotland. In 2017, Proprium Capital Partners and C&C Group backed the management buyout of Admiral Taverns and in 2019 supported the acquisition of 150 tenanted community pubs from Star Pubs & Bars and 137 pubs from Marston's.