The competition watchdog is to launch an inquiry into the sale of the Hawthorn pub company.
Admiral Taverns bought the company from NewRiver REIT in August for £222m, bringing together Hawthorn’s 674 pubs with Admiral’s 969-pub estate.
Admiral has now been served with an initial enforcement order by the Competition and Markets Authority, ahead of the launch of a formal phase-one investigation. The deal is likely to be judged on a local rather than a national basis, with the regulator requiring the disposal of pubs where a local monopoly is created.
NewRiver, which was set up in 2009 to take advantage of distressed property assets after the global financial crisis, started building a pub business in 2013 when it acquired 202 pubs from Marston’s.
