Baer also said Amber could look to accelerate its plan to open around 10 to 12 sites per year, and may examine group acquisitions; the company completed on a new site last week, the Capitol in Bolton, Greater Manchester — a former Bramwell Pub Company pub. Meanwhile, Amber has strengthened its management team with the appointment of two new area managers and its first acquisitions manager, along with two internal promotions to regional manager roles.
Under the transaction, Legal & General Capital (LGV) sold its 82% stake in the group to the management buyout team backed by BlueBay Asset Management and MxP Partners. The management have cut their holding from 18% to 10%-14% and taken money off the table as part of the deal. The biggest shareholder of the newly financed Amber will be BlueBay, which is also supplying mezzanine funding, followed by MxP and management. HSBC is providing a £34m debt facility.
'Business as usual'
Baer told M&C Report it’s “business as usual” but added: “If the right opportunities come along either to do what we’re doing at a faster rate, or maybe even a bigger opportunity, then we’ll see if we have the funds available to do that.
“We’ll be investing between £6m and £7m a year for the next four years.”
Baer said he expects to open The Capitol in the autumn. “We’ve got a couple of sites in the north east that we’re close to exchanging on.
“We believe we’re very much on track to get to 100 this calendar year.”
Mark Wass and Lee Baxter have been appointed area managers for Yorkshire and the Midlands respectively, while Bruno Boi has been promoted internally to the new role of acquisitions manager. The two new regional managers are Nick Fever and George Boulter, also internal appointments.
Baer described the new deal as a “good step forward for Amber” and “a really good, positive signal for wet-led pubs”.