Young’s sells 56 tenanted pubs for £53m to focus on freehold model
The group will retain seven pubs from its Ram Pub Company tenanted business with the rest going to Punch.
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Young’s has sold 56 pubs for £53 million as bosses continue the company’s move away from a tenanted model.
The deal sees the group retain seven pubs from its Ram Pub Company, which operated Young’s tenanted business, with the remainder going to rival Punch.
The sale was first revealed in May this year and bosses said the disposal will allow them to focus on their strategy of operating “premium, individual, differentiated and predominantly freehold managed pubs and hotels”.
Cash from the deal will be used to strengthen Young’s balance sheet in a difficult year for the sector and also to buy any new freehold pubs to add to its portfolio.
Young’s sole focus will now be on operating well-invested and premium managed pubs and hotels
Chief executive Patrick Dardis said: “Young’s sole focus will now be on operating well-invested and premium managed pubs and hotels.
“We have a proven history of making attractive returns from investing in high-quality pubs and this disposal will provide us with additional firepower to upgrade our existing pubs and capitalise on attractive acquisition opportunities that may come to the market.
“During lockdown, we invested a total of £17 million in improving the pubs in our managed estate and the purchase of two new pubs: Enderby House in Greenwich and Alban’s Well in St Albans.”
He added that sales remain encouraging, despite continued restrictions, and said he believes the group will emerge from the pandemic in a stronger position.
The company previously revealed that it sunk to a £45.2 million pre-tax loss for the year to March after the heavy impact of the enforced closures.
Revenues for the period plummeted to 90.6 million from £311.6 million for the previous year and led to the group tapping up £88.4 million in extra funding.