Urbium reaches £113m sale agreement

08 September 2005
Urbium reaches £113m sale agreement

Tiger Tiger operator Urbium has reached an agreement with Lightflower Acquisition over a £113m sale.

Lightflower, an investment vehicle set up by private equity group Electra Partners for the purpose of the deal, will pay £10.75 per share, as revealed in Caterer last month.

A spokesman for Electra Partners said: "Urbium provides an excellent opportunity to acquire a high quality portfolio of assets and back a top-class management team to continue to grow the business organically and by further acquisition."

The current Urbium senior management team will remain in place.

The bidding war for Urbium began last month after pub and bar group Regent Inns tabled a rejected bid of 975p per share in July.

The deal was clinched despite Urbium posting shaky figures for the six months to 26 June.

Like for like sales were down 1% on 2004 and pre-tax profits slumped from £1.9m last year to £1.2m.

Urbium chairman John Conlan blamed the poor sales on the impact of the London bombings in July but said the recovery was on the way.

Electra agreed, stating that the current dip was likely to be reversed in the medium term. "We're looking to increase the value of the business over a three to four-year time frame." He added that Electra aims to double the size of the estate in the same period.

Turnover at Urbium for the period was up 9.6% to £35.1m from £32m the previous year..

By Tom Bill

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