Client: Whitbread - David Lloyd Leisure
A growing trend towards brand focusing and away from diversification in the leisure industry has led to the sale of assets by large leisure PLC’s, taking advantage of the strong market conditions in 2005-2007 to maximise shareholder return. Whitbread’s sale of its David Lloyd Leisure chain is one example – our leisure team provided Whitbread with valuation and due diligence advice on the disposal.
Our approach
As corporate property managers to Whitbread, our team had extensive knowledge of the 60-strong David Lloyd Leisure UK portfolio.
All of the factual information for each individual club – including the size, location, deeds and tenure summary details, photos, plans, the appropriate financial data, rents, service charges and insurance premiums – was already collated. This kept Whitbread’s management and administrative time to a minimum and allowed the deal to progress swiftly.
Our health and fitness sector specialists – who have or are advising Bannatyne Fitness, Esporta, the Lawn Tennis Association and the All England Club – had extensive market intelligence and comparable information to draw from. Through a combination of both our detailer operational knowledge of the industry and our experience of more specialist investment markets, we were able to provide a valuation that not only gave Whitbread the confidence to go to the market, but also formed part of the package relied upon by the successful purchaser.
Result
Whitbread sold the chain to Versailles Bidco Ltd (a company owned by London & Regional and Bank of Scotland Corporate) for £925m.
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