Pub portfolio for sale after entering administration

Pubfolio, the nation-wide operator of 250 pubs, has entered administration with debts exceeding £50 million.

Trade at the pubs is to continue while the administrators at PricewaterhouseCoopers seek a new owner. Pebble Management has been given the task of managing the pubs in the meantime.

Pubfolio owed more than £50 million to its banks, and “was unable to meet all of its financial commitments”, David Chubb PwC administrator said. There is no urgency for the sale of the portfolio, according to Chubb: “We don’t have to sell next week, or even next year. It wants the best outcome to get back its money.”

The Trowbridge-based company was established on completion of a deal to purchase 545 pubs from Punch Taverns in 2005 in a deal worth £162 million.

Its plans to sell off parts of the estate to property investors backfired when demand for property and land dried up at the onset of the property market collapse three years ago.

Pub sales across the portfolio have dived by between 25 and 30 per cent in the past few years, which has been blamed on factors including the smoking ban and increasing utility bills. The last reported accounts for Pubfolio Limited show revenues of £19.8 million for the year to 30 June 2008, while its pre-tax profits stood at -£47.9 million for the same period.

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