Realpubs in £7m deal to buy three London M&B pubs

Realpubs is understood to have acquired three freehold London pubs from Mitchells & Butlers in deal estimated to be worth in the region of £7m.

The acquisitions are the first major buys since Realpubs launched a joint venture with Brockton Capital, the real estate private equity fund, called Realpubs II with the aim of building a £50m freehold estate in London.

Realpubs is believed to have acquired The Prince Bonaparte in Notting Hill, the Coleherne, Earls Court and the Queen Adelaide, Shepherd's Bush. Ex-Whitbread employees Malcolm Heap and Nick Pring, who founded Realpubs in 2002, oversee the operational side of the new venture with Brockton providing real estate expertise.

The company currently operates seven pubs across north and west London.

Pring said last year: "We have spent six months working on this deal but can now go out and start looking at new sites. We hope to be able to build an estate of around 30 quality sites over the next few years."

David Zimmermann, managing director at Brockton, said at the time: "The difficulty in the pub sector is finding a quality management team to partner and Brockton is delighted to have found Malcolm and Nick.

"Realpubs has a track record of taking underperforming assets and turning them into quality 'Urban Locals', which trade strongly from both the kitchen and the bar."

Sapient Corporate Finance, the specialist corporate finance adviser to the UK pub industry, acted on behalf of Brockton in creating Realpubs II. Realpubs and Mitchells & Butlers declined to comment.