By Andrew Starke
Three bars in the Monkey Bar Hotel Group will be sold over the next couple of months with the flagship Balmain Monkey Bar to sell at public auction in April.
Receivers and managers, Lawler Partners, have appointed Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels and John Parsons as agents.
The chain went into receivership midway through 2009.
It comprises two freehold going concern hotels in Balmain and Chatswood and one leasehold operation in Dubbo.
The Monkey Bar Chatswood is to be offered for sale by public auction on March 30 with the Balmain Monkey Bar following there after.
The Dubbo Monkey Bar is currently subject to finalisation of contracts of sale with a preferred purchaser.
The group includes 36 EGM’s (gaming machines) with a potential SIA of up to 54 gaming machines across the venues.
Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ newly appointed national director of pub investments, John Musca, said the Monkey Bar name had excellent brand equity within the hotels marketplace with the popular venues offering good established cashflows.
“We would expect the sale of both the Balmain and Chatswood hotels to be extremely keenly contested as they deliver sustainable earnings with demonstrable growth opportunities,” he said.
Of Musca’s appointment, Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels Australasian MD, Craig Collins, said the company had set new benchmarks for transactional activity in the pub asset class.
“Following from the securitization of pub cash flows that has occurred since 2004, we are about to enter a new wave of consolidation under very different operating and legislative frameworks nationally, presenting numerous opportunities for investment in the sector,” Musca said.
“We are already seeing it manifest itself in regenerated capital market interest in the sector as a result of financial resolutions to failed legacy investment structures.”