Regent completes pre-pack administration
Regent Inns has gone through a pre-pack administration with 60 sites emerging in a new company, Intertain, led by previous management.
Three Walkabouts, including the Shaftesbury Avenue site with a rent of £950,000 per annum, five Jongluers and a Quincey have been left behind in administration. Also left behind are 20 sub-let sites on which Regent was paid rent "occasionally" .
The administration process also ends the prospect of having between 60 and 70 sites that were assigned by Regent during its history coming back to the company as tenants go bust.
Punch Taverns has 12 Old Orleans leases returned in the administration — a blow to the company since they represent the worst-performers out of the original 32 sold to Regent for £26m.
Punch has been granted a license to run them under the Old Orleans banner. The management team at Intertain comprises chief executive John Leslie, strategy and business development director Mike Dowell, who formerly ran Pitcher & Piano, chief operating officer Simon Kaye and chief financial officer Mike Foster.
The new business is understood to have pre-tax earnings of around £10m. Leslie told the Morning Advertiser: "We have a new bank facility that will allow us to invest in the business. By leaving a lot of the problems behind, cash-flow is transformed."
Intertain's vision is to be the leading operator of entertainment focused bars in the UK as well as operating a differentiated family orientated restaurant business.
The 60 sites that are involved in the transaction employ over 1,800 people. Former Regent shareholders have their equity in the company wiped out by the pre-pack.
