Little Chef has sold 65 sites to an Israeli property investor in a £60.3m sale-and-leaseback deal.

Arazim Investment, a £100m company listed on the Tel Aviv stock exchange, completed the purchase earlier this week.

The deal included a 56-bedroom hotel operated by Little Chef at Pontefract on the A1 in West Yorkshire.

None of the properties are co-located on Travelodge sites and are spread as far apart as Scotland and the South-west of England.

Little Chef owner Lawrence Wosskow said: “The money will enable us to continue the roll-out of our new Coffee Tempo café brand and modernise existing Little Chef sites.”

The sites, nine of which have a Burger King franchise, were chosen because they were freehold or long-lease deals. The leaseback deals are for 35 years.

The deal was handled by leisure mergers and acquisitions advisor, Coffer Corporate Leisure.

By Tom Bill

Get your copy of Caterer and Hotelkeeper every week - click here to subscribe and save 25%.