Nomura has put Inn Partnership up for sale for an estimated £500m. The 1,250 pub group is one of three pub companies the Japanese investment bank owns.
Companies likely to be interested in buying Inn Partnership include rivals such as Enterprise Inns, Pubmaster and Punch as well as a clutch of private equity groups including German bank WestLB.
Guy Hands, head of Nomura's Principal Finance Group, has appointed Schroder Salomon Barney Smith to find a buyer for the business, which Nomura bought in January 1999 from Greenalls - now De Vere - for £375m.
There have been doubts over Nomura's commitment to long-term ownership of its three tenanted pub companies - Unique, Inn Partnership and Voyager. Inn Partnership, with 1,200 pubs, is the second largest and last year made profits of about £50m. Unique has over 3,200 outlets and Voyager, bought for £625m earlier this year from Bass, owns about 1,000.
Mike Kinski, the former Stagecoach chief executive, was appointed by Guy Hands to undertake a strategic review of the businesses. Many reports suggested the groups would be merged to create a single, 5,500 pub operation.
Nomura has lost two chief executives from its pub businesses with the departure of John Denning from Voyager, and Giles Thorley quitting Unique to join Punch. Mr Kinski is currently running Voyager.
Mr Hands is also set to quit the Japanese bank and set up his own £2.2bn fund. If a buyer for Inn Partnership is not forthcoming he may arrange a securitised bond issue instead as a way of realising value from the business before his departure.
Related stories:
Thorley gives nothing away about decision to leave Unique (11 October 2001)
Giles Thorley's departure signals growing tension at Nomura (03 October 2001)
Giles Thorley leaves Unique to join Punch (02 October 2001)
New chief sought for Voyager (21 September 2001)
Guy Hands to take pubs when he quits Nomura (08 May 2001)