Ultimate Leisure looking to buy rivals

High street bar operator Ultimate Leisure expects to be in the market for rival operators as well as individual sites in 2007.

Speaking as the group announced that its like-for-like sales for December were one per cent up on the previous year, Mark Jones, the group's executive chairman, said the group had ambitions to buy businesses to add to Ultimate's estate in the coming year.

"We've looked at a number of businesses in the past and have bought on occasion, including Prohibition and our activities in Belfast, so it wouldn't be the first time," he said.

Jones was speaking as the group announced trading had been "satisfactory" over the Christmas and New Year period, although he warned that the market was "still pretty tough, so we're pleased to have recorded a positive like-for-like figure".

He added that business wasn't helped by the bad weather over the New Year period.

Moving forward, Jones said he expected Ultimate's refurbishment programme to be finished by Easter, while the group still had a "small number of sites to sell", as well as actively seeking to acquire sites.

"We're looking at individual bars but also larger groups," he said.

The arrival of non-executive director Alka Bari, a former director of Close Brothers Corporate Finance who has previously advised Regent Inns and Yates, would boost Ultimate's chances of snapping up rival operators, Jones said.

"There are a number of privately-held companies out there who might be looking to sell because of the state of the sector. We've got the desire on the board and the support of the banks to do appropriate deals," he said.

Jones added he saw "no sign of a slowdown in mergers and acquisitions activity in the industry in 2007".