The Nelson Meers Group has pounced on Hurstville’s iconic Ritz, paying $45 million to add the baker’s dozen to its strong gaming portfolio.
The long-standing landmark Hurstville ‘Ritz’ Hotel has been twice owned by former Newtown Jets front rower, Steve Bowden.
The pub holds a special place in industry legend, achieving the highest sale of a freehold going concern in NSW, when Bowden sold it at the market peak in 2006 for a whopping $52 million to Aussie Leisure Group.
Three years later, on the downside of the GFC, the struggling ALG sold it to the Redmond family for $38m. And just a year after that, Bowden bought it back for $30.5m.
Sources say this time around the deal was facilitated through Bowden’s accountant and brother-in-law John Morrison, the Meers Group (NMG) well positioned to take advantage of its full operational potential.
Nelson John Meers was Lord Mayor of Sydney from 1978 to 1980, following a successful legal career, reaching partner at two international law firms. In 2001 he began the Nelson Meers Foundation, which in 2005 won the Goldman Sachs JBWere Artsupport Australia Philanthropy Leadership Award.
One of Meers’ four children, Simon, is head of business development & co-deputy chairman of NMG, joining the family company in 2013 following a background in managing private equity.
NMG already boasts 12 pubs in the stable, all in the top 150 of the list of gaming operations, making the Ritz, currently L&G’s #37, a good fit.
NMG also went through and survived the GFC, and although Meers (Jr) declined to comment to PubTIC on the buy, the Group’s decisive off-market acquisition of the Ritz is a good sign of the health of the sector, gaming pubs reflecting the most reliable income streams and hence rarely transacted.
