ALE Wins Pub Stoush with Woolies

By Andrew Starke

The Victorian Supreme Court has ruled in favour of listed pub owner ALE Property Group in its legal dispute with Woolworths subsidiary Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH).

ALH is ALE’s tenant at the Vale Hotel in Mulgrave and the group had hoped to develop vacant land at the site without its landlord’s consent.

ALH argued that it was entitled to subdivide the land without disclosing any plans for development.

However the court found in favour of ALE’s position that the tenant must provide details of any development as this could affect the pub’s valuation and the amount of rent it could charge.

The judge accepted ALE’s valuation approach, finding that “the valuer is to have regard to the business as a going concern” as a hotel premise and that “no addition, subtraction or discount is to be made by reference to the value attributable to licences”.

ALE Property Group managing director, Andrew Wilkinson, welcomed the verdict.

“ALE welcomes the clarity that the Court’s judgement and consequential orders will deliver to the development of this particular property and to the significant number of other properties within its portfolio of hotels with similar potential for development,” he said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.