A Merry Xmas for the few not the many. Punch Pubs sold to Investor for £1bn
Punch the pub company that currently owns around 1300 pubs, including 56 it recently bought from Youngs, has been sold to US private equity investor Fortress for £1bn.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/15/punch-pubs-sold-us-private-equity-group-fortress
Punch had a lot more pub 5 years ago but a large number were sold to Heineken and the company was subsequently taken into private hands and has been owned by Patron a European private equity investor.
Its the latest in a long series of pub deals involving Punch
Significantly 90% of the pubs sold are freehold which might make them good development opportunities. The general point of private equity is to make money from an investment over a period of a few years and the move on.
Punch also indirectly employs 20,000 or so people. While Punch investors will have a merry Christmas I doubt those keeping the pubs going will.
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