NewRiver REIT has entered into an agreement to sell its community pubs business Hawthorn Leisure REIT to Admiral Taverns for £222.3m.
Said Allan Lockhart, chief executive of NewRiver,“We have now agreed the sale of Hawthorn which, once completed, will deliver on our key priority to reset loan to value, strengthening our balance sheet and enabling us to focus on executing our resilient retail strategy.”
Admiral Taverns is a wet-led community pub operator, with approximately 1,000 pubs across Scotland, Wales and England Hawthorn has 674 leased and tenanted and operator managed community pubs.
Mark Davies, chief executive of Hawthorn, added,“Until the completion of the deal, our teams will continue to do what they’ve always done – provide best-in-class support for our Pub partners and operators, working in partnership with them to help them run great community pubs.
“The last eighteen months have shown just how vital the community pub is to the social fabric of this country, and I’m incredibly proud of the role we have played in helping our Pub Partners and operators not just survive this most challenging period, but also ensure they’ve been able to come out fighting on the other side.”