Whitbread has signed an agreement with UK-based insurance company NFU Mutual and international savings and investment firm Standard Life Assurance Ltd for the sale and leaseback of seven Premier Inn properties with joint site restaurants. NFU and Standard Life will pay £51 million for the properties and enter into 25-year leases with Whitbread, which will continue to run the sites.
“This sale and leaseback is a continued evolution of our overall funding portfolio, and follows our successful 2011 US private placement and bank refinancing. The significant book profit is a useful reminder of the value we create from our freehold developments, and the strong asset backing to Whitbread’s balance sheet,” said Nicholas Cadbury, Whitbread’s group finance director.
De Vere Says Goodbye To The Grand Harbour
As part of its strategy to offload its non-core assets, London-based De Vere Group has exchanged contracts for the sale of the 173-room Grand Harbour Hotel in the port of Southampton, southern England, to an unnamed private buyer for an undisclosed sum. The group plans to concentrate on its golf resort properties and only has one non-core property left to sell: the Grand Brighton, which will be put on the market in 2014 following the completion of an investment programme at the 201-room hotel. “We have now sold six non-core properties in difficult markets and continue to make good operational progress across the portfolio as we seek to enhance its value. As the leading golf resort operator in the UK, we shall be further enhancing our golf product in 2013,” said Andrew Coppel CBE, De Vere Group’s chief executive.