The average profit per pub across the entire estate is up by around 4% and the core estate like-for-like net income has increased by 1%.
There were 177 pubs identified to operate under the retail contract, with 97 pubs trading or in progress of conversion as of 20 August 2016. Pub roll-out plans have risen to around 150 pubs per year, which is up from previous guidance of 100 to 120 pubs per year.
The pubco’s nominal net debt has been reduced by approximately £225m, which is a 16% reduction in the year. Its nominal net debt to EBITDA leverage has dropped to around 6.6 times, compared to August last year when it was 7.2 times.
The property estate has been externally valued by valuation consultancy company GVA at approximately £2,030m, which is approximately £850m in excess of nominal net debt.
Valuation
The 2016 property valuation represents a net uplift of around £40m on the previous year's valuation, after accounting for pub disposals. Net nominal debt to property valuation has fallen to 58% in comparison to August last year, when it was 64%.
The pubco's strategic disposal programme is now complete after delivering ahead of expectations:
- Around £83m - individual property and land sales
- £53m - package disposal of non-core pubs (previously announced)
- £99m – disposal of 50% holding in Matthew Clark (previously announced).
Roll-out
CEO of Punch, Duncan Garrood, said: “The business has ended the year with a solid set of results, in line with our expectations, and which reflects the completion of our strategic disposal programme.
“The roll-out of our retail division is progressing well and we now plan to accelerate it to c.150 pubs per year.
“I look forward to updating the market fully when we present our full set of results on 8 November.”