Enterprise hopes to raise £14.7m at auction
Tenanted pub company Enterprise Inns is planning to sell seven of its top quality freehold pubs in a sale-and-leaseback deal at a public auction.
The company, which is led by chief executive Ted Tuppen, is to put seven pubs up for sale with auctioneers Allsop on 15 October.
Guide prices suggest the company hopes to raise around £14.7m for the package, six of which are located in prime London trading areas.
The pubs are:
• Barley Mow in Westminster (guide price of £2,225,000 to £2.300,000 with a rent of £175,000 per annum)
• Blue Anchor in Hammersmith (guide price of £1,950,000 to £2,250,000 with a rent of £155,000 per annum)
• Blue Posts in Soho (guide price of £1,650,000 to £1,750,000 with a rent of £120,000 per annum)
• Coat & Badge in Putney (guide price of £2,150,000 to £2,250,000 with a rent of £150,000 per annum)
• Duke of York in St John's Wood (guide price of £1,750,000 to £1,800,000 with a rent of £135,000 per annum)
• Goat in Boots in Chelsea (guide price of £2,500,000 to £2,550,000 with a rent of £190,000 per annum)
• 51 in Windsor (guide price of £1,750,000 to £1,800,000 with a rent of £130,000 per annum)
Enterprise is offering a 35-year lease to the freehold purchaser, beginning on the day of the auction. It intends to uses the proceeds of the sale to pay down debt.
The group faces the prospect of part-renewing a £1bn senior debt facility from a group of banks in May 2011.
Tenants of the pubs include Market Taverns, which runs the Barley Mow and Geronimo Inns, which is the tenant at the Coat & Anchor.
A spokesman for Enterprise said: "We believe that these properties will be very attractive to professional commercial property investors offering yields of around 6% on expected selling prices. In addition, investors will benefit from Enterprise's high quality covenant.
"Enterprise will retain an economic interest in these pubs through our existing licensee agreements which will remain unaffected by these sales. The sales proceeds will be used to repay group debt and we may consider further sales in the future."
