Pubs chain snaps up 1,000 pubs
The UK’s second-biggest pubs chain today snapped up more than 1,000 community pubs in a deal worth £335m (€598.8m).
Punch Taverns said the acquisition of Innspired would give it a stronger presence in the south of England and lead to annual cost savings of £3m (€5.4m).
It marks the latest stage in the rapid expansion of Punch, which nearly doubled the number of pubs it owns to 7,334 through the acquisition of Pubmaster in December.
More than half of Innspired’s leased and tenanted pubs are based in the south.
Chief executive Giles Thorley said: “This is a nice bolt on and it’s very much in line with our strategy. We know these type of businesses and they are very easy for us to integrate.”
Innspired, which is based in Wiltshire, England, was formed in 1999 through the merger of two pub estates, Ushers of Trowbridge and Alehouse. It recently made more acquisitions, including a string of sites from brewer Scottish & Newcastle.
The group is made up of mainly community local style pubs, with more than 98% of its estate being freehold or long leasehold.
Mr Thorley said the chain’s 1,064 pubs would continue to operate as they currently do, although no decision had been made on what would happen to its headquarters which employs 70 staff.
Punch will pay £95m (€169.8m) for the chain and is taking on £258m (€461.2m) of debt. Last year Innspired posted earnings before interest, tax and depreciation of £32.4m (€57.9m).
In order to satisfy regulatory concerns, Punch has agreed to sell 88 pubs to Admiral Taverns for £22.6m (€40.4m), including 51 Innspired sites and 37 Punch venues.
Earlier this week Punch said annual turnover grew by 2.9% at those pubs not acquired in the £1.19bn (€2.1bn) deal for Pubmaster after “another year of strong growth”.
