NewRiver has acquired a portfolio of 76 community pubs from Star Pubs & Bars - the leased pub business of Heineken UK - for £12m, which represents a net initial yield of 17.1%. This acquisition will use part of the proceeds from NewRiver's recent disposal of 22 community pubs in October for £14.8m, sold at a net initial yield of 5.6%.
The acquisition represents 76 wet-led community pubs situated across the UK, which are predominately let on short-term leases, with a weighted unexpired lease term of less than one year - this will facilitate management initiatives such as signing new long-term leases with new and existing occupiers.
Mark Davis, CFO of NewRiver and Exceutive Chairman of Hawthorne Leisure, commented, 'We are delighted to be acquiring this high-yielding portfolio of community pubs from Star Pubs & Bars. Our integration of the Hawthorn Leisure business [which the group bought in May] is well on track to complete in January 2019.'
He added, 'This acquisition will allow us to use our asset management and risk-controlled development expertise to extract further value from this portfolio.'
NewRiver is a real estate investment trust, focused primarily on retail and leisure property. It currently has around 320 pub sites.