Urban Pubs & Bars acquires 13 sites from Barworks

The acquisition includes the Exmouth Arms in Exmouth Market; Singer Tavern in Moorgate; and Harrild & Sons in Farringdon.

“We’ve known the guys at Barworks for many years," says Nick Pring, who founded Urban Pubs & Bars in 2014 with Malcolm Heap.

"They have some wonderful sites in prime locations. We are delighted to be able to acquire so many iconic pubs that complement our existing estate perfectly.”

The transaction comes on the back of Urban’s recently announced partnership with Davidson Kempner and Global Mutual. The joint venture was established to support and accelerate the growth of Urban, and the Barworks transaction is the first acquisition of scale.

Following the acquisition of the Barworks sites, Urban will comprise 34 pubs, bars and restaurants across flexible trading formats.

“It is great to find such a quality acquisition so shortly after completing on our own transaction to raise capital with new partners," adds Heap.

"The pubs being acquired will strengthen our business and we look forward to welcoming their amazing people into Urban.”

Barworks, which was founded in 1996 by Andreas Akerlund, Patrik Franzen and Marc Francis-Baum, will continue to operate with an estate of six sites. 

“We received a fair offer from Urban and we took it. We felt it was a good idea to ‘cash in some chips’, consolidate and move forward," says Francis-Baum.

"We still have a great business, plus a fantastic pipeline of sites and we’ve never had ambitions to be the biggest pub group in London, we just like creating spaces that people want to be in and will continue to do so.”

Michael Penfold of AG&G acted on behalf of Barworks and Fraser Anderson of Sapient Corporate Finance advised Urban Pubs & Bars on the transaction.