News in brief
Capital Pub Company expands
London's Capital Pub Company has bought 10 west London pubs from Spirit Group. Capital, which is funded through two Enterprise Investment Schemes, has recently raised £3.6m through corporate financiers Noble & Company to finance the deal. It brings Capital's freehold estate to 26, after the sale of the White Hart pub in the City of London last month and leasing of the Balham Arms, Balham, to a third-party, Scott Collins.
InterContinental sell-off
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is disposing of a further £600m-worth of European hotels. Seven InterContinental-branded properties in Amsterdam, Budapest, Cannes, Rome, Frankfurt, Madrid and Vienna have been put on the market complete with management contracts. It also plans to dispose of its owned mid-scale European hotel portfolio, but will retain the IHG branding. So far, the hotel company has disposed of, or is in the process of disposing of, 176 hotels with a net value of more than £2.8b, returning £1.9b to shareholders of the £2.25b originally promised.
BaxterStorey grows
BaxterStorey added 30 contracts worth £16m to its books in its first full year of trading. Following the merger of Wilson Storey Halliday and BaxterSmith in November 2004, turnover at the UK's largest independent contract caterer went from £85m (the combined sum for both previous companies) to £101m in 2005. Pre-tax profit is estimated to be £3.5m-£4m before exceptional items. The company operates 154 contracts across 281 sites.
