The UK's largest pub group, Stonegate, which owns brands including Slug & Lettuce and Be At One, is romoured to be planning to sell around 1,000 of its pubs, Blooberg has speculated.
The news comes just three years after Stonegate acquired rival pub chain Ei Group for an estimated £1.27bn, taking it to around 4,500 sites.
Bloomberg has reported that the company has debt of £2.6bn and is planning to offload around one fifth of its pubs for an estimated £800m, although the sale is not imminent.
Stonegate reported a pre-tax loss of £233m in the year to 26 September 2021 after pandemic restrictions hit trading, down from a £746m loss the in the previous 12 months.
FS News Editor, Becky Martin contacted Stonegate for comment and a spokesperson said, 'There is always speculation with such an asset based portfolio but we wouldn’t like to comment further at this time.'