Former Wallaby Bill Young has beefed up his pub portfolio with the $28.75 million purchase of the freehold Five Dock Hotel from the Lantern Hotel Group.
Mr Young, who also owns the Concord West, the Palace Hotel in Mortlake and the Wisemans Ferry Inn Hotel, all in NSW, paid a 38 per cent premium to the June 30 book value on a yield of about 8 per cent.
![Bill Young behind the bar at The Concord Hotel with his father Bill Young Senior during the Wallabies' end of World Cup ...](/web/20161122092358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/u/n/x/k/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsuadj.png/1479776715445.jpg)
"I am very pleased with the purchase," Mr Young said on Tuesday.
Lantern is selling its assets as it prepares for a possible delisting.
It sold the Five Dock pub, in inner-western Sydney, through Andrew Jolliffe, Ray White Hotel's Asia Pacific director, who said demand was high for good-quality suburban pubs. It has also recently sold the Commodore Hotel in North Sydney, the Ambarvale Hotel in south-western Sydney and the Uncle Bucks Hotel in Mount Druitt.
CBRE Hotels' Daniel Dragicevich and Sam Handy negotiated the Ambarvale sale - to Colin Parras for $21.2 million - on behalf of Lantern, at a 50.2 per cent premium on the June 30 book value, as well as the sale of Uncle Bucks Hotel in Mount Druitt for $25.3 million to Peter De Angelis.
At its annual meeting last month, Lantern was given the green light from investors to proceed with selling its remaining core Sydney hotels, ahead of a likely delisting and winding up.
Lantern chief executive John Osborne said after the sales, the proceeds would be returned to shareholders in the form of distributions.
![Listed company Lantern Hotels has sold The Five Dock Hotel in Sydney's inner-west for $28.75 million.](/web/20161122092358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/n/l/1/q/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsuadj.png/1479776715445.jpg)
Following this process, shareholder will vote again on whether to delist the group and wind up the business.
At the group's recent annual general meeting, chairman Graeme Campbell said the group did not have the scale to support its corporate and listed structure and opportunities to grow with suitable acquisitions were rare.
![Former Wallaby Bill Young during a 2004 Bledisloe Cup match: "I am very pleased with the purchase."](/web/20161122092358im_/http://www.smh.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/u/n/y/8/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsuadj.png/1479776715445.jpg)
Other notable Lantern Hotels sales have included Sydney's El Toro at $24 million.
Mr Jolliffe said 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," Mr Jolliffe 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."
The pub sector has been one of the busiest this year with Mr Jolliffe currently selling the Clovelly, Tennyson and Figtree Hotels in a very strong market of activity to round out 2016.