Admiral Taverns appoints advisers to explore possible sale
Pub group Admiral Taverns has appointed advisers from PwC to consider a range of options ranging from a debt refinancing to a sale.
Admiral, which has around 1,150 pubs, is currently owned outright by Lloyds bank. The move is expected to return Admiral to a more conventional ownership model, and could see Lloyds selling some debt, some equity, both, or neither.
Estimates from analysts value the company at between £200m and £250m, according to a report in The Times.
Admiral, which was founded in 2004 by the Landesberg and Rosenberg families, entered a pre-pack administration three years ago that resulted in a £600m debt for equity swap and saw Lloyds taking full control of the firm.
Under the management of executive chairman Jonathan Paveley and managing director Kevin Georgel, the company recently started to turn around its fortunes, with underlying profits of £27m reported for the year to June. It is also on its way to reaching a core of 800 quality pubs, having operated around 2,000 at the peak of its size.
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By Neil Gerrard
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