Whitbread agrees £51m sale and leaseback of seven Premier Inns

Hotel and restaurant group Whitbread has agreed a £51m sale and leaseback deal on seven Premier Inn sites.

Whitbread, which also owns the Costa Coffee brand, said it had exchanced agreements with NFU Mutual and Standard Life for the sale and leaseback of the sites, all of which have restaurants attached.

On completion, which is expected on 19th December 2012, the buyers will pay £51.04m in cash for the properties and enter into 25 year leases with Whitbread, which will continue to operate the hotels.

Whitbread said the deal price of £51.04 million represented a profit over book value, as at 29th November 2012, of £19.6m and was 95% of the 2007 valuation of the individual properties.

Nicholas Cadbury, group finance director of Whitbread said: "This sale and leaseback is a continued evolution of our overall funding portfolio, and follows our successful 2011 US private placement and bank refinancing. The significant book profit is a useful reminder of the value we create from our freehold developments, and the strong asset backing to Whitbread's balance sheet."

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