Agents begin job of finding buyers for London Town's pubs

Christie + Co is today beginning the task of finding buyers for the 44 leasehold pubs formerly owned by GRS Inns, one of the London Town subsidiaries that went into administration last week.

The property agent will be looking for buyers across the UK, with the pubs being located everywhere from Scotland to Hampshire and East Anglia to South Yorkshire.

David Chubb, the administrator at PricewaterhouseCoopers which last week put the heavily indebted London Town plc and its GRS Inns subsidiary into administration, said he was seeking to negotiate with the pubs' landlords "to keep as many trading as possible".

"In order to avoid immediate closure of the 44 leased pubs in GRS Inns Limited, we have negotiated a short term management contract and hope this will allow time to attempt to secure the longer term survival of these pubs," Chubb said.

"All the pubs are on the market and we would ask interested parties to contact our agents Christie + Co," he added. If buyers can't be found for the pubs they will eventually revert to the owners of the freeholds, who include Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns.

While GRS Inns Ltd and London Town's holding company went into administration last week after failing to meet its debt covenants "and other obligations", said Chubb.

The group's managed services, which includes the group's head office function in Norfolk, and its managed pub businesses have been bought from the administrators in a pre-pack deal by LT Pub Management Ltd, a new investment vehicle backed by investors including London Town's former chief executive Billy Buchanan.

GRS Pubs Ltd and GRS Pub Investments Ltd, which own more than 200 freehold pubs, were continuing to trade as normal, Chubb added.