Little Chef sells 65 sites

Little Chef has sold 65 sites to an Israeli property investor in a £60.3m sale-and-leaseback deal.

Arazim Investment, a £100m company listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, completed the purchase earlier this week.

The deal included a 56-bedroom hotel operated by Little Chef at Pontefract on the A1 in West Yorkshire.

None of the properties are co-located on Travelodge sites and are spread as far apart as Scotland and the South-west of England.

Little Chef owner Lawrence Wosskow said: "The money will enable us to continue the roll-out of our new Coffee Tempo café brand and modernise existing Little Chef sites."

The sites, nine of which have a Burger King franchise, were chosen because they were freehold or long-lease deals. The leaseback deals are for 35 years.

The deal was handled by leisure mergers and acquisitions advisor, Coffer Corporate Leisure.

By Tom Bill

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