Fri 20th Sep 2019 - Admiral Taverns closes in on 150-strong Heineken package Admiral Taverns closes in on 150-strong Heineken package: Admiral Taverns, the C&C Group and Proprium Capital-backed group, is closing in on a deal to acquire the 150-strong package of pubs Heineken UK placed on the market in July, Propel has learned. Admiral is believed to be in advanced talks to acquire the package in a deal valued at circa £50m. It is understood the majority of the pubs are former Punch sites with good tenants and held on substantive leases. It is understood agent CBRE is handling the sale of the pubs, which are being sold as a single package, with the majority spread across England and Wales plus a handful in Scotland. It is understood a deal for the package, which has been marketed under the name Project Tokyo, could be completed in the next month or so. It would be the third package of pubs Admiral has acquired from Heineken in the past five years. In September, Admiral acquired 111 tenanted pubs from Heineken’s Star Pubs & Bars business for an undisclosed sum. At the end of 2017, the Chester-based company acquired a further 17 pubs from Star Pubs & Bars. The acquisition of the 150 pubs would take its estate back to around the 1,000-site mark. NewRiver and Red Oak Taverns were also thought to have run the rule over the 150-strong package. Earlier this year Admiral, which was acquired by C&C and Proprium for about £220m in September 2017, hired Chris Jowsey as chief executive, succeeding Kevin Georgel. Jowsey joins Admiral from Heineken, where he was leading the group’s on-trade business in the UK. He has held a variety of strategic and commercial roles at Heineken since joining the business in 2003, having overseen the growth and expansion of Star Pubs & Bars, with some 2,700 pubs across the country. Heineken completed its acquisition of Punch Securitisation A, comprising about 1,900 pubs in the UK, in August 2018 as part of a back-to-back deal with Vine Acquisitions, a company formed at the direction of Patron Capital. Heineken UK has been integrating the pubs into its Star Pubs & Bars estate, creating the country’s third-largest pub company. In April, Heineken announced it would invest a record £50m into its Star Pubs & Bars estate this year.