City Pub Group PLC acquires minority stake in the Kensington Park Hotel

() has acquired a 49% stake in Barts Pub Ltd, owner of the iconic Kensington Park Hotel in London’s Ladbroke Grove.

City Pub paid £750,000 for the stake and following the acquisition will operate the pub under a management contract. It has an option to buy the freehold for £5.5mln up until March 2024.

The Kensington Park Hotel was the venue of Tom Jones’s first gig in 1960, while punk/luminaries The Clash and Paul Weller have also played there. In 2014 it was declared an “asset of community value” by Kensington Borough Council.

The company has also increased its stake to 24% from 14% in certain companies within the Mosaic Pub and Dining Group, through the acquisition of existing shares in The Galaxy (City) Pub Company Limited, The Pioneer (City) Pub Company Limited and The Sovereign (City) Pub Company Limited.

City Pub paid around £1.18mln to up its stake, which has now cost £2.42mln in total.

The Mosaic Companies own nine prominent pubs, predominantly in London and Birmingham, of which seven are freehold. Mosaic has a strong balance sheet with more than £3mln in cash deposits and a very strong freehold asset-backing, City Pub said.

“These two corporate transactions demonstrate that the company can provide liquidity for shareholders in EIS [Enterprise Investment Scheme] companies on a staged basis, with the aim of significantly increasing the size of our portfolio over the next 2-3 years. We will continue to look at selective, high-quality single pub acquisitions as well as larger estates,” said Clive Watson, the executive chairman of the City Pub Group.

Historic pub the Kensington Park Hotel saved following star-studded campaign https://t.co/2EKkmS4vL2 pic.twitter.com/beBBauTc89

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