Learning a lesson?

While it had been on the cards for some time, when Admiral Taverns finally succumbed to the inevitable it was still a bit of a shock.

That a company of such a size could come tumbling down ought to be a salutary warning to other players in the sector.

Leveraged up to the eyeballs, the UK's third-largest leased pub operator, described by one pub property specialist I spoke to last week as a "bottom-of-the-barrel affair", simply couldn't carry on with its existing level of debt and interest demands.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but did those who sold hundreds of their tail-end pubs to Admiral — or indeed, those who lent it millions — not see this scenario looming at some stage? Perhaps, perhaps not. Who thought the economic party would stop? And having gotten rid, did the vendors care anyway?

All the same, where was the financial prudence? Lending to business carries with it risk, but I reckon there'll be some red faces over at Lloyds, which effectively controls what Admiral does from now on.

Which prompts the question, what now? According to Admiral it's business as usual, which might not be music to the ears of many of its tenants.

In the short term, incoming chairman Jonathan Paveley will be busy formulating a plan to improve his pubs' trading capabilities. Lloyds will expect nothing less.

Beyond Lloyds looking to sell the business on - in this market, when is that likely? - what happens to the pubco in the longer term remains unclear.

Maybe some of the regional brewers will cherry-pick some of Admiral's better sites, although with the greatest respect to those running an Admiral pub, the quality threshold is not high.

Alternatively, since Lloyds will want to claw back at least some of what it has written off, maybe it could bite the bullet and offer its sitting tenants the chance to buy their pub?