Admiral Taverns buying Hawthorn pub company
Monday, July 26, 2021
Retail and leisure property investor NewRiver has sold their Hawthorn Leisure pub joint venture to pub firm Admiral Taverns for around £222.3m.
Hawthorn's nationwide portfolio of 674 pubs comprise a mix of predominantly leased, franchise-led and operation-controlled sites in England, Wales and Scotland.
The sale is part of NewRiver's strategy to diversify away from its pub operations to realign its loan-to-value ratio and restructure its portfolio.
Allan Lockhart, CEO of NewRiver added: "Over recent years, we have grown Hawthorn to become the UK's leading community and wet-led pub business. As a consequence of this, we received significant interest from a range of potential buyers for Hawthorn, following the divestment plan we announced in April 2021.
The acquisition is a continuation of the growing business strategy to expand its community pubs portfolio.