NewRiver buys Hawthorn Leisure for £106.8m

Property investor NewRiver has announced its acquisition of pub company Hawthorn Leisure for £106.8m from an affiliate of Avenue Capital Group.

Hawthorn Leisure's senior management team consisting of Gerry Carroll, Mark McGinty and Matthew Ward will all remain with the company, working alongside the NewRiver pub management team led by David Shipton.

NewRiver acquired its first portfolio of 202 pubs from Marston's in November 2013, and its second portfolio of 158 pubs from Punch Taverns in 2015. The Hawthorn Leisure portfolio increases its estate from 331 to 629 pubs.

Hawthorn Leisure was formed in 2014 by former banker Noah Bulkin from the purchase of 275 pubs from brewer and operator Greene King. The company reported post-tax losses of almost £9.5m in 2016.

Allan Lockhart, NewRiver chief executive, said: "The portfolio is highly complementary to our existing pub portfolio and the combined portfolio remains below 20% of our total assets. We now look forward to applying our active asset management and risk-controlled development expertise to produce profitable opportunities for our occupiers, and growing and sustainable cash returns for our shareholders."

Mark Davies, chief financial officer, added: "I look forward to working with our experienced management teams to establish a market leading business which will deliver synergies and drive highly accretive cash returns."

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