Stonegate operated pubs among portfolio of 13 sold for £23m

A portfolio of 13 pubs operated by Stonegate has been sold by owner Apriroose to investment specialist BlackRock for £23m.

Included in the sale are the Prince of Wales in Chorley, Lancashire, the Crafty Scholar in Lancaster and in Blackpool Yates’s and the Castle.

According to The Caterer, the properties have long, unbroken leases with 22.5 years unexpired terms and a total passing rent of around £1.35m per annum, reflecting a net initial yield of 5.5%.

Coffer Corporate Leisure advised real estate company Aprirose, while BlackRock was advised by Fleurets.

Mark Sheehan, managing director, Coffer Corporate Leisure, said: “The public house market in particular is in huge demand with appetite significantly outstripping supply.
Institutional investors are attracted by the long leases, index-linked uplifts, strong underlying property value and liquidity of pub assets. Lack of stock remains our biggest issue.”

Geoffrey Shaw, portfolio manager at BlackRock, said: “Pubs provide a great diversifier for our clients as the demand drivers have a low correlation to other sectors such as hotels, offices or car parks.

“The assets are run by a very experienced management team and the individual lot sizes make the properties very liquid.”