Regent pub sale may fall through – updated
A deal by pub and bar operator Regent Inns to sell 17 pubs for £4.27m is hanging in the balance after the prospective buyer went into receivership.
The pubs group was all set to sell its last 17 unbranded pubs, 14 of which were leasehold and three freehold, to pub group Porter Black Holdings, and had exchanged contracts last October.
But in a statement to the London Stock Exchange today, Regent said it had now been notified that the company had gone into receivership.
"The disposal of the 17 pubs has not yet completed, and Regent has yet to receive any monies under the acquisition agreement," Regent said.
Discussions had begun with the receiver on Regent's contractual position, "including whether or not the sale will complete", it added.
The disposal was meant to mark Regent's final exit from its unbranded estate as the company focused exclusively on the expansion and development of its branded portfolio, included the Australian-themed Walkabout bars.
Blair Nimmo and Tony Friar of KPMG Corporate Recovery were today appointed joint receivers of Porter Black.
The company operates 32 licensed premises across the UK with a significant concentration in London and the South-east. It employs about 450 staff and turns over some £15m a year.
Said Nimmo: "We are continuing to trade the business as normal and are hopeful of selling it as a going concern."
Porter Black's portfolio consists of:
The New Battleaxes, Wraxall, North Somerset
The Woodman, Palmers Green, London
Porter Blacks Battersea, London
White Lion, Tenterden
Ye Old Crown, Edenbridge
Dodger Inn, Newport, Gwent
Porter Blacks Chippenham
Porter Blacks Newton Abbot
The Barn, near Llantrisant, Mid-Glamorgan
S Bar, Battersea, London
Millers Wine Bar, Taunton
Porter Blacks Bedford
Bar 1-0-1, Eastleigh
Porter Blacks Somerset, Yeovil
Porter Blacks Exeter
Porter Blacks Kingston, Kingston-upon-Thames
Jack Stamps, Weston-Super-Mare
The Folly, Croydon
Spoofers Gloucester
Bar Logic, London
Bar Monaco, London
Bourbon, Leeds
Chumley's, Reading
East Side Bar, Ilford
Guildhall, Newcastle-under-Lyme
Pavilion, London
Quid Pro Quo, Leeds
Sadlers, Luton
Significant Half, Plymouth
Spoofers, Dagenham
Tramshed, London
Westside Bar, Nottingham
