Activities

Urbium is a privately owned operator of late-night bar-restaurants and nightclubs that target the top end of the market. The venues attract affluent 21-to-35-year-olds and food and corporate business both form a substantial part of their sales mix.

Urbium’s flagship large-capacity Tiger Tiger bar, club and grill venues are located in major UK cities. They can typically hold about 2,000 customers, but the group has also developed a smaller format that will hold about 1,350.

The group claims to be market leader in London’s West End, where its bars focus on food, drink and group socialising.

Its City of London business targets the “post-work wind-down period” and venues are located near offices and key transport links.

A fourth concept, Premium Bar, is earmarked for launch in late 2005.

Timeline

• 1998: Publishing group Chorion starts up its bar and nightclub business with the opening of the first Tiger Tiger (in London’s Haymarket) and the acquisition of three other venues in the capital – the Zoo Bar, Oxygen and Bar Madrid.  
• June 2001: Chorion buys the 10 Covent Garden nightclub and restaurant for £2.75m from City Bars and Restaurants and renames it Sway. The deal boosts its bar tally to 13 venues. Later in the month, it buys the large-capacity Sugar Reef and Red Cube bar-restaurants in London from the White Star Line group.
• 2002: The 20-strong bar business (which includes 14 London venues and six Tiger Tigers) is demerged from the publishing business and begins trading on the Alternative Investment Market as Urbium in May. During the year, it opens Motion in London’s West End; new Tiger Tigers in Croydon, Newcastle and Glasgow; and its first City of London venue, Digress City.
• 2003: Urbium closes the Birmingham Tiger Tiger and converts Bar Madrid into the Wax Bar.   
• 2004: In February, Urbium buys two Bar Med bar-restaurants in London from SFI. It opens Abacus, Agenda and Context in the City of London and, in June, opens its first smaller-format Tiger Tiger in Aberdeen. In August, the group sells three Birmingham venues (Apt, Polaris and 52 Degrees North). A month later it buys Strawberry Moon in London’s West End for £1.45m.
• Early 2005: In February, Urbium buys the Walkabout bar in London’s Shoe Lane, followed by two One of Two bars in the City in April. In June, it buys two Spirit Group venues in London, the Long Island Iced Tea Rooms and Bar 38.
• June 2005:  Regent Inns tables an unsolicited offer for Urbium of 820p per share which is rejected as too low. In July, Urbium rejects Regent Inn’s fourth and final offer of 975p per share and instructs Numis Securities to evaluate offers from other parties, including Alchemy Partners.
• September 2005: Urbium agrees a £113m sale to Lightflower Acquisition, the investment vehicle for private equity group Electra Partners, which once owned the Tom Cobleigh pub group and tried to buy Barrucuda Bars earlier in the year.
• October 2005: Lightflower’s offer is declared unconditional and plans are announced to delist the company from the AIM on 16 November. The group opens its first larger-capacity Tiger Tiger in Cardiff.

Financial snapshot

Full year

Turnover: £75.3m (2003: £66.7m)
Pre-tax profit: £9.7m (2003: £3.5m)*

Half year

Turnover: £35.1m (2004: £32 m)
Pre-tax profit: £1.2m (2004: £1.9m)*

* Pre-tax profits are after exceptional items and amortisation

Financial year end: 31 December 2004
Half year end: 26 June 2005

Operating data

Number of employees: about 1,3,00

Total number of bars: 36 (including 27 in London)

Tiger Tiger: nine, in Aberdeen, Cardiff, Croydon, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Portsmouth

London West End venues: 19 – Babble, Boardwalk, Digress, Motion, On Anon, Oxygen, Ruby Blue, Strawberry Moons, Sugar Reef, Sway, the Langley, the Loop, the Soho, the Warwick, Tiger Tiger, Wax Bar, Zoo Bar (plus the Long Island Iced Tea Shop and Bar 38, which are being redeveloped)
 
London City venues: eight – Abacus, Agenda, Alibi, Apt, Context, Digress City (plus two Spirit venues in Covent Garden that are being redeveloped)

Strategy

"As anticipated, the results for the first half reflect the investment we have made in expanding and improving our estate and enhancing our sales and marketing capabilities. We expect the benefits of these initiatives will have a significant effect in the all-important final quarter of the current year and in 2006 and beyond."

Source: interim results statement, September 2005

Chief executive

Stephen Richards

Key directors

Finance director: Steven Palmer

Contact

Vernon House
40 Shaftesbury Avenue
London
W1D 7ER

Tel: 020 7434 0030
Fax: 020 7434 1413

E-mail:
Website: http://www.urbium.com