Entrepreneurs' City Pub Company to fundraise £10m as part of expansion drive

Pub industry entrepreneurs Clive Watson, David Bruce and John Roberts are seeking to raise £10m to expand the estate of their pub businesses' parent firm City Pub Company.

Operating companies City Pub Company (East) and City Pub Company (West) will each aim to raise £5m through the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS), which is said to ensure efficient returns for investors.

The company's most recent fundraising drive since April 2013, it is part of a wider expansion drive which helped double both East and West parts of the firm through developments and acquisitions of sites across southern England.

Since the beginning of the financial year, the number of pubs owned has risen from five to 13, while operating profit has totalled £618,000 in the eight months to 31 August 2013.

The East and West parts of the parent company operate fairly separately, with East headed up by Rupert Clark, with free-of-tie, liquor-led sites around north London and the South East, including Chelsea, Cambridge, Oxford, Stratford-Upon-Avon and Norwich.

West is overseen by Alex Derrick, and runs pubs with a stronger food offer around west and south London, and further afield, including Battersea, Wandsworth, Bath and Henley-upon-Thames.

Chief executive and founder of City Pub Company, Clive Watson, said: "The EIS scheme has enabled us to bring in investors who share our passion for great pubs and recognise the opportunity for City Pub Company going forward. We look forward to continuing to acquire and develop pubs that give customers access to great well-refurbished free houses."

Sold to Greene King for £93m in 2011, the parent company's most recent acquisitions include the Lighthouse in Battersea, the Metropolitan in Bath, and the Phene in Chelsea.

Derrick, Clark and Watson, were all strongly involved in the firm's former incarnation as the Capital Pub Company before it was sold, as operations director, operations manager, and founder respectively.

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