The nine-digit deal for KKR’s Australian Venue Company to buy the Sand Hill Road portfolio has been put on hold as both groups share in the national pain of pub closures.
News emerged early March of the agreement, understood to be north of $100 million, for AVC to take control of eight of Melbourne’s finest venues, namely St Kilda’s The Esplanade, Garden State Hotel in the CBD, Prahran Hotel, The Terminus in Abbotsford, and Richmond’s Bridge Hotel, Holliava, The Posty and the Richmond Club.
But on 23 March all licensed venues were ordered closed, bringing empty buildings, tills and stages, and staff without income.
AVC is majority owned by Wall Street private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. The group subsequently exercised a cooling-off clause in the sale contract that allowed it to pull out of the deal prior to settlement, which was pending at the time of the closure announcement.
Sand Hill Road is partners Andy and Matt Mullins, Doug Maskiel, Tom Birth and Andrew Larke. It began with a lease at the Commercial Club Hotel in Fitzroy back in 2000, and after two decades and an award-winning restoration of the beloved Espy the partners agreed to the portfolio sale.
Andy Mullins had posed they were waiting until after settlement to announce any future plans, and in the wake of the decision to withdraw the purchase they will need to refocus on rebuilding the businesses post-pandemic.
Mullins declined to offer any comment beyond “hoping the whole industry pulls through”.
A spokesperson for AVC has confirmed the deal may be revived in due course.
“[Our] two companies have enormous respect for one another and the intention remains to pick up discussions again once we are through this crisis.”
