By Andy Young
Former Wallaby, Bill Young, has bought the Five Dock Hotel from the Lantern Hotel Group for $28.75m.
The hotel becomes the fourth in Young’s portfolio alongside the Concord West, the Palace Hotel in Mortlake and the Wisemans Ferry Inn Hotel.
Speaking yesterday about the deal, Young said: “I am very pleased with the purchase.”
The sale of the gaming hotel, by Ray White’s Asia Pacific Director Andrew Jolliffe, represents a 38 per cent premium to the 30 June 2016 book value and around an eight per cent yield.
Jolliffe said he thought the top billing sale of the Five Dock Hotel was brought about because of the quality of the property. “In effect, the market had been anticipating the sale of this prominent hospitality asset for some time; and the interest generated from the beginning of the sale campaign was commensurately strong,” he said.
“The Five Dock Hotel has performed very well since the recent introduction by Lantern Hotels of some modest capital, and I wholly expect the successful purchaser to unlock the inherent value so patently available with the benefit of time.”
Lantern’s sell-off strategy has seen the group offload 12 hotels across the country over the last year, including the Commodore, Uncle Bucks Hotel and Ambarvale Hotel in recent weeks.
The Five Dock Hotel was only on the market for one week and demonstrates the strength of Sydney’s pub sales market.