Sat 2nd Aug 2025 - Exclusive: Upham Inns acquired 14 remaining Oakman Inns sites for £8.1m Exclusive – Upham Inns acquired 14 remaining Oakman Inns sites for £8.1m: Upham Inns, the southern England premium pubs operator, acquired the bulk of the remaining Oakman Inns business for £8.1m, a report by administrator PwC has said. In May, Propel revealed exclusively that the group had sold ten of its freehold pubs to The Restaurant Group. Later that same month, the group filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators, as it looked to complete a sale of the remainder of its business. Last month, Upham Inns acquired 14 of the pubs – including the freehold of The Three Locks in the Buckinghamshire village of Stoke Hammond and 13 leasehold pubs – including The Beech House sites in Amersham and Beaconsfield. A report by administrator PwC shows the total sale consideration was £8,104,396, including £6,714,396 for the leasehold sites and £650,000 for the one freehold site, plus £714,993 for equipment and stock. A total of 522 of the 685 Oakman employees were transferred to the new owners while 163 were made redundant. The sites for which the administrators were unable to find a buyer – thought to be four – were closed immediately and it is in the process of offering to surrender the leases to the landlords and returning the keys. The report added: “Historically, the group has relied on successive fundraising rounds and shareholder loans to support its growth and capital investment programme, including site acquisitions and refurbishments within the group companies. Since incorporation and prior to the onset of the global pandemic, the group executed a successful site acquisition strategy, creating an award-winning, premium pub and hotel business of scale generating strong weekly takings and robust financial metrics. In order to facilitate this strategy, the group incurred debt as part of expansion plans both on a secured and unsecured basis. The group’s financial position was significantly weakened by the prolonged impact of the covid-19 pandemic. As with much of the hospitality sector, enforced closures and restrictions on trading during 2020 and 2021 led to material revenue losses across the group's portfolio. To preserve liquidity and retain its operational footprint, the company in particular was required to incur additional short-term borrowings during this period. Although normal levels of trading resumed post-pandemic, in recent years the group has been impacted by sector-wide pressures, including inflation in food and labour costs, rising utility prices, and a downturn in discretionary consumer spending. These challenges placed sustained pressure on cash flow and ultimately led to a deterioration in the group’s financial position. The group’s funding structure is inherently complex. Over time, the group has supported its trading activities, site expansion and capital investment through a combination of secured and unsecured debt, including bond issuances and shareholder loans raised at various stages being relied on. Whilst this approach enabled growth, it also created a complex debt profile with high interest rates and left limited headroom to absorb trading shocks and restricted the capacity for the group to generate sustainable profits ultimately leading to the onset of financial distress and liquidity issues for the company and wider group.” The board of directors sought to pursue a solvent solution (for the leasehold portion of the company), including undertaking an M&A process to identify a buyer for the group as a whole (including the company). This process was conducted with the intention of preserving value and avoiding the need for a formal insolvency event. This marketing process did not generate any solvent offers for the company. Following a comprehensive marketing phase, the offers received primarily attributed value to the freehold sites held in another group company, Oakman Inns PE Limited (OIPE) and no offers relating to the company were received. The sale proceeds from the sale of the OIPE freehold sites – for which 11 offers were received – enabled the repayment in full of approximately £41m of secured debt, comprising circa £30m owed to Cynergy Bank, a debt owed by OIPE but guaranteed by the company, and circa £11m in secured loan notes. The settlement of all debt under these secured obligations from the sale in OIPE extinguished all secured liabilities of the company. The sale of these properties also enabled the continuation of employment for 424 group employees. The company remained indebted with unsecured bonds and loan notes greater than the value of the assets of the business. The sale from OPIE only extended the time the company had to assess its options as the debt servicing requirement remained at a level which could not be sustained beyond the short term. The board of the company explored a potential consensual debt restructuring, which included proposed new equity investment from bondholders, shareholders and holders of unsecured term loan debt; but despite discussions being held additional funding via this mechanism could not be secured. This ultimately led to the commencement of an accelerated sale process for the remaining business and assets, and the appointment of administrators. The process led to seven offers for different portions of the primarily leasehold business. Two were quite similar, with one slightly more – the Upham offer. The report added: Based on current information, we think that the level of first ranking preferential claims will be nil. In the event that any such claims arise, we think we'll be able to pay these in full based on what we know currently. We think secondary preferential creditor claims will be circa £1.1m. We think we'll be able to pay the secondary preferential creditor in full based on what we know currently. We anticipate this dividend will be paid within six months of our appointment. We think a dividend of about 16-19p will be paid to the unsecured creditors based on what we know currently. The funds for this will come from asset realisations, after paying or setting aside funds to cover the cost of the administration and the preferential claims.” The reported also noted that the company's accounts reflect a directors loan account balance of £491,000 due from Peter Borg-Neal. It said: “We are reviewing the position and will seek recovery of amounts due to the estate.”