By Andrew Starke
The Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) is reported to have paid $19 million for the St Albans Hotel in Melbourne’s north-west.
According to the Australian Financial Review, ALH pipped the Munday Group in acquiring the pub after the latter did not settle an agreement to buy it for $18 million.
ALH Group chief operating officer, Ross Blair-Holt, said the purchase would allow the group to better position itself in Victoria and take advantage of the state’s new requirement that a single operator own no more than 35 percent of gaming machines by 2012.
ALH, which is three quarters owned by Woolworths, is expected to sell off properties and machines within its Victorian portfolio before that time.
The St Albans Hotel has 50 poker machines, a sports bar and bistro.
TJ Board director, Terry Board, marketed the pub, which sold on a multiplier of about 10.5 times earnings.
Meanwhile, Rick Munday of the Munday Group told the AFR he is in negotiations to buy the Diamond Creek Tavern from the Collingwood Football Club.
He said negotiations to buy Port Melbourne’s Beach Hotel failed, after the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal questioned the hotel’s liquor licence.