Pope sells 23 pubs to ease huge debt

From the Echo, first published Thursday 2nd Oct 2003.

TROUBLED Dorset pub retailer Eldridge Pope is selling 23 pubs for a total of £5.4 million in a bid to reduce its £44.5 million debts.

It has also entered into further agreements to sell five more pubs - including the Ports-mouth Hoy on Poole Quay - for £1.5 million.

Eldridge Pope is getting rid of at least 12 per cent of its empire of 186 pubs across the South. Local pubs affected include: Portsmouth Hoy, Poole; Carpenters Arms, Bransgore; and Tippling Philosopher, Sherborne. Officials at Dorchester announced to the Stock Exchange that they had exchanged contracts for the sale of 18 pubs (eight leasehold, 10 freehold) to the Inntown Pub & Property Company.

They are being sold for £3.9 million in cash - less than six months after they were valued at £5.5 million on April 5 2003.

Last year the 18 pubs together made profits of £200,000 but were only break-even in the six-months to 5 April 2003. Five more pubs, including the Portsmouth Hoy at Poole Quay, have been sold to a variety of purchasers for a total £1.5 million in cash with completion expected by tomorrow.

The five were together originally valued at £3.1 million on April 2003.

They made losses of £200,000 for the year ended September 30, 2002, and £300,000 for the six-month period ended April 5, 2003.

Eldridge Pope has been at the centre of a takeover battle involving two bidders: Jersey retail and brewing group CI Traders, and SDA Ltd, which is owned by former Weymouth pubs supremo Michael Cannon.

Mr Cannon tabled a 165p/share offer for 19.31 per cent of Eldridge Pope but the board urged shareholders to reject it. Last month it was reported that CI Traders had pulled out of the race.

In July former director Jeremy Pope launched an attack on the management of his family's company following the closure of Dorchester's historic brewery with the loss of 57 jobs.

His comments provoked a sharp rebuke from current chairman Christopher Pope, who said his cousin's comments were "full of wrongly-based charges".

Eldridge Pope expects to announce results for the year to October 4, 2003, in December.

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