SFI to buy Capital Bars in UK

The SFI Group, which recently added the Slug and Lettuce chain to its Litten Tree and Bar Med brands, yesterday entered into an agreement to buy the UK business of Capital Bars, plus two Greene King pubs, for £5m.

It will pay Capital Bars £4.7m in cash for its eight loss-making UK properties, subject to shareholder approval.

These include four Tex Mex-style Break for the Border bar-restaurants - two in London and one in both Peterborough and Leeds.

The deal also covers the Café en Seine café-bar in Peterborough, the Oslo bar in Leeds, the Borderline live music venue in London, and an agreement to lease a site in Cardiff.

The UK arm made an operating loss of £2.2m in the year to 2 April 2000.

SFI has also bought two Newt & Cucumber pubs, in Wolverhampton and Stafford, from Greene King which will shortly be converted to SFI brands.

The Capital Bars sites will trade under their existing names in the immediate future, but will eventually be redeveloped into SFI brands.

Capital Bars said its exit from the overcrowded UK market would leave it free to focus on its thriving Dublin business, which it acquired for £14.6m in September 1999 when the group was still called Break for the Border.

The Irish business currently comprises three hotels with 212 bedrooms and 11 bar-restaurants.

This tally includes the Dublin Planet Hollywood, whose acquisition for IR£1.35m (£1.04m) was completed on 4 September.

By Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk