Enterprise Inns

Enterprise Inns

Enterprise Inns Plc is a UK leased and tenanted pub company and has quickly become one the UK’s largest pub operators. The company is headquartered in Solihull, West Midlands and became a member of the FTSE 100 Index in 1995.

Enterprise Inns as of March 2007 had 7713 pubs in the UK. Their pubs are operated by tenants so the company collects rent from individuals who live in and operate the pubs. The group is primarily composed of unbranded tenanted and leased properties.

Enterprise Inns was formed in 1991, initially with 368 pubs and following a series of acquisitions they had an estate of nearly 9,000 pubs spread throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

History of Enterprise Inns

• In 1991 Enterprise Inns was established by Chief executive Ted Tuppen. He led the management buy-in of 372 pubs from Bass that saw the start of Enterprise Inns.
• 1995 was an important year for the company as the group floats on the Stock Exchange. At the time Enterprise Inn had fewer than 500 pubs.
• Enterprise Inns buys Mayfair Taverns for £37.4m, Century Inns for £139m and 217 more Bass pubs for £69.3m in 1999. The acquisitions mean that the group expands its estate by 901 pubs to 2,430.
• In June 2000 the group buys 183 Swallow pubs for £118m from Whitbread, which bought the Swallow Group of hotels and pubs. It sold on 30 of the pubs for £50m.
• In June 2001 the company continued to acquire more pubs as Enterprise bought 439 managed pubs from Morgan Grenfell Private Equity for £266.7m. The following month it bought 431 pubs from Scottish & Newcastle for £269.5m as part of a joint acquisition with Robert Breare’s Noble House Leisure.
• In March 2002 Enterprise announces that it has invested £75m for a 16.8% stake in Newco, a consortium created to buy 3,219 Unique and 940 Voyager pubs for more than £2b from Japanese investment bank Nomura. This deal led to an estate that accounts for 7% of all UK pubs.
• The group bought 1,860 pubs from Laurel Pub Holdings for £881m in May 2002. This bumps up its estate to 5,300 pubs. In December it reveals it is in talks with Breare to launch a joint bid for Wolverhampton & Dudley.
• Enterprise bought outright the 4,054-strong Unique Pub Company in March 2004. The £609m acquisition makes Enterprise the UK’s largest pub company with more than 9,000 venues.
• After the acquisition of the Unique Pub Company, Enterprise Inns sold 239 pubs to Admiral Taverns for £61m in Aril 2004 to avoid referral of the purchase to the Competition Commission.
• Enterprise completes the integration of the Unique Pub Company and sells 41 more pubs to Admiral Taverns for £10.45m.
• In May 2006 Enterprise Inns refinances its syndicated debt at more attractive rates, more than doubling its facility from £490m to £1b for a five-year term.
• September 2006 saw Enterprise agree to sell 769 pubs a quarter of which were based in London and the South-east of England, to Admiral Taverns for £318.1m. The sale left the group with 7,700 pubs.
• Enterprise Inns pulled out of Scotland in November with the £115m sale of its 137-strong Scottish estate to Retail and Licensed Properties.

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