NewRiver has agreed to sell its Hawthorn pubs portfolio to Admiral Taverns for £222.3m.
Hawthorn’s 674 pubs, 96% of which are freehold, will now be merged with Admiral’s 1,000-pub business.
The cash raised will be used to lower the REIT’s LTV further below 40% and will be funnelled into NewRiver’s “resilient” retail assets and its regeneration portfolio.
NewRiver said it was a chance to “reshape its portfolio”.
The sale price would appear to represent a multiple of just under 11.5x ebitda, based on pre-Covid earning s of £19.4m. If so that would make it one of the highest for the sector.
Boss Allan Lockhart said: “Over recent years, we have grown Hawthorn to become the UK’s leading community and wet-led pub business. As a consequence of this, we received significant interest from a range of potential buyers for Hawthorn, following the divestment plan we announced in April 2021.”
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