Enterprise Inns today sold seven more of its London pubs via a sale and leaseback arrangement, grossing at least £10.15m in the process.
Six of the pubs were sold through auctioneers Allsop, through whom the pubco sold and leased back 14 pubs late last year.
A seventh pub, the Metropolitan in the West London district of Westbourne Grove, was sold prior to the auction taking place, while an eighth, the Northumberland Arms on King's Cross Road, also in the capital, was withdrawn from the auction before proceedings got underway.
The latest sales takes Enterprise's gross sale and leaseback proceeds to more than £35m, while the rental bill from the disposals, including today's activity, now totals more than £2m. The pubs were sold with new 35-year leases to Enterprise.
The disposals are part of a programme by Enterprise to find buyers for well-located pubs and raise cash to pay down debt.
The pubco sold 14 pubs under similar circumstances across two auctions in October and December last year.
All but one of the latest pubs to be sold went for above the upper end of their respective guide prices, lending weight to earlier comments from Enterprise's chief executive Ted Tuppen that the investment would prove attractive.
Before the first auction was held last October Tuppen told thepublican.com that the sites would prove to be "an attractive proposition for people with cash to invest, one that will get them a return of around six per cent a year with a blue chip company".
Tuppen subsequently suggested the group could sell and leaseback up to 200 pubs to raise cash to pay down debt.
Standard & Poor's, the US-based credit rating agency this week acknowledged that paying off debt early was generally a good move but warned that the cashflow profile for some pub companies disposing of assets might be affected in the process.
The latest pubs sold are:
The Cumberland Arms, Hammersmith, West London: sold for £1.68m (guide price range: £1.3m - £1.4m) on a rental yield of 5.95 per cent
Lillie Langtry, Fulham, South West London: sold for £1.46m (£1.2m - £1.3m) on a yield of 6.51 per cent
Round Midnight, Islington, North London: sold for £1.41m (£1.05m - £1.15m) on a yield of 5.67 per cent
Nellie Dean, Soho, Central London: sold for £2.1m (£2.2m - £2.3m) on a yield of 7.38 per cent
Northumberland Arms, Bloomsbury, Central London: sold for £2.13m (£1.65m - £1.75m)
The Metropolitan, Westbourne Park, West London: sold prior to auction
Smugglers Tavern, Marylebone, Central London: £1.37m (£1.2m - £1.3m) on a yield of 6.93 per cent
Northumberland Arms, King's Cross, Central London: withdrawn from the auction