Entrepreneur pays £345m for Spirit pubs

IRANIAN entrepreneur Robert Tchenguiz has splashed out £345m on 364 pubs from Spirit Group. The deal increases Tchenguiz's portfolio of pubs and marks another round of musical chairs in the industry.

Tchenguiz's new Globe Pub Company has agreed a tenancy deal with Britain's biggest brewer through Scottish & Newcastle Pub Enterprises, taking S&N's leased-pub portfolio to 1,500.

The Spirit estate of managed pubs had sales of £119m in the year to August 21. Tchenguiz says he wants to buy other pubs. 'It's a pretty liquid market with a strong and stable cash flow - there is also the property side.'

He says the pub business is a 'terrific sector' and a 'great investment opportunity'.

Tchenguiz amassed a 35% stake in tenanted pub operator Pubmaster. He sold this to Punch Taverns for £1.19bn last year - although he concedes the sale may have been premature. 'I wish I'd hung on to that original portfolio,' he says, adding: 'Globe will hopefully be acquiring more assets in the sector.'

Globe is the preferred £151m bidder to buy Laurel Pubs and its Hogshead managed-pubs business.

Robert and older brother Vincent - a former foreign exchange trader and keen gambler who made about £1m backing Greece to win Euro 2004 - are worth about £400m.

Their Rotch property investment vehicle has a stake in pub operator Regent Inns.

Rotch was linked to a bid to buy Selfridges department stores last year. It also completed a £270m deal with Welcome Break to buy and lease back the service station operator's sites.

Rotch backed the £155m Somerfield purchase of a portfolio of Safeway stores from William Morrison.

Spirit, owned by four venture capitalist groups, was formed in 2002 following a demerger from Punch Taverns. It still runs about 2,000 managed pubs.