According to The Times, Legal & General Capital (LGV) has sold its 82% stake in the 95-strong group to management buyout team backed by BlueBay Asset Management and MxP Partners, an investment firm controlled by the family that once owned Weetabix.
The management, led by managing director James Baer and chairman Clive Preston, have cut their holding from 18% to 10-14% and taken money off the table as part of the new deal. The biggest shareholder of the newly financed Amber will be BlueBay, which is also supplying mezzanine funding, followed by MxP and management.
Firepower
Baer told the newspaper that the extra firepower from its new backers, together with a £34m debt facility from HSBC, would enable the group to keep adding 10 to 12 individual pubs a year while looking at “opportunities to do something a bit bigger and bolder”.
It is thought that the group, which has a business model whereby each of its landlords is paid a percentage of drink sales, will eventually look to stretch is geographical reach to the south as it eyes expansion outside its heartland of the North West. It has recently been growing its presence in the Midlands.
Expansion
Amber was created in 2005 from the ashes of Honeycombe Leisure then bolstered by the acquisition of 28 former Cains pubs. It was initially backed by three venture capital trusts, including MxP, then sold to LGV in 2010.
Last year, the company increased its debt facility by £5m to £27.5m and Preston said the company expected to have at least 120 sites by 2016. Weekly net sales average more than £9,000 per pub.