Pub operator London Town has seen the price of its shares fall to just 0.5p this morning following reports that it is set to enter a pre-pack administration.
The company, which has specialised in working with companies like Punch Taverns and Enterprise Inns to reopen closed pubs and turn them around, has been struggling under its debt burden, according to the Financial Times.
The paper reported that the AIM-listed company could announce the move as early as this Thursday, when its shares are due to be taken off the market.
No-one from the company, which now owns 407 managed and tenanted pubs, was available for comment. It reported pre-tax losses for the year to 28 December 2008 of £24.7m.
The firm came into the pub sector in 2006 when it bought 167 pubs from property investor Jack Petchey for £94.7m, funded through debt including a £72.8m loan from Anglo Irish Bank.
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By Neil Gerrard
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