SFI to buy Capital Bars' UK business

The SFI Group, which recently added the Slug & Lettuce chain to its Litten Tree and Bar Med chains, has agreed to buy the UK businesses 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 businesses, subject to shareholder approval. These include two Tex-Mex-style Break for the Border bar-restaurants in London, and one each in 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 building in Cardiff. The UK arm made an operating loss of £2.2m in the year to 2 April.

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 will trade under their existing names for the immediate future but will eventually be redeveloped to be part of SFI chains.

SFI chairman Tony Hill said the acquisitions represented a rare opportunity to snap up properties of a suitable scale in strategic locations with drink licences already in place. The group intends to open 25 more outlets this year.

Capital Bars said the sale would leave it free to concentrate on its thriving Dublin businesses, which it bought for £14.6m in September 1999 when the group was still called Break for the Border.

The Irish operation comprises three hotels, with 212 bedrooms, and 11 bar-restaurants, including the Dublin Planet Hollywood, whose purchase for IR£1.35m (£1.05m) was completed on 4 September.

Capital Bars is also pursuing its options from the Irish acquisition to take over two more bars from Des and Liam O'Dwyer.

by Angela Frewin