Sale and Leaseback

RNS Number : 2174M

Whitbread PLC

11 August 2011

 

11 August 2011

WHITBREAD AGREES £53.8 MILLION
SALE & LEASEBACK

Whitbread, the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group, announces today it has exchanged agreements with LaSalle Investment Management for the sale and leaseback of seven properties operating as Premier Inns and adjacent restaurants.

On completion, which is expected by September 2011, LaSalle will pay £53.8 million in cash for the properties and enter into 25 year leases with Whitbread, who will continue to operate the properties.  This represents a net initial yield of under 5.5%.

The price of £53.8 million represents a profit over book value, as at 3 March 2011, of £28.1 million and is 87% of the 2007 valuation ascribed to the properties.

Christopher Rogers, Group Finance Director of Whitbread PLC commented;

"Whilst Whitbread remains committed to having a substantial freehold asset base it is our strategy to diversify our sources of funds. This sale and leaseback is another example of selectively using our property as an alternative method of funding future growth. In April of this year we announced new five year growth milestones for the business, to increase Premier Inn rooms by 50% to at least 65,000 and to double the size of Costa."

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For more information please contact:

Investor Relations

Christopher Rogers, Whitbread PLC           [phone]

Press Contacts

Anna Glover, Whitbread PLC                    [phone]

Rebecca Scott, Tulchan                          [phone]

For photographs and video please visit our media library on www.whitbreadimages.co.uk

Notes to Editors

Whitbread PLC is the UK's largest hotel and restaurant group operating market-leading businesses in budget hotels, restaurants and coffee shops.  Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa.

Whitbread PLC employs over 40,000 people globally and serves over 10 million customers every month in over 2,000 outlets across the UK.

Whitbread has outlined five-year growth milestones (to 2015/16) to increase the number of Premier Inn UK rooms by 50% to at least 65,000, add 80-100 new Restaurants and to double the size of Costa with global system sales of £1.3bn and 3,500 stores worldwide.

In the year ended 3 March 2011, Whitbread PLC reported a 11.5% increase in Group Revenue to £1,599.6 million and Underlying Profit before tax of £287.1 million up 20.1%.

Whitbread PLC is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100. It is also a member of the FTSE4Good Index.

LaSalle Investment Management, Inc., a member of the Jones Lang LaSalle group (NYSE: JLL), is a leading global real estate investment manager, with approximately $45 billion of assets under management of private and public property equity investments. LaSalle is active across a range of real estate capital and operating markets including private and public, debt and equity and our clients include public and private pension funds, insurance companies, governments, endowments and private individuals from across the globe.  For more information, visit www.lasalle.com.

 

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