Part of £39m deal with owners of Yates

The Comedy Loft chain of venues is to change hands again.

Parent company Intertain has been sold to Stonegate Pubs – a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands tax haven which owns 662 venues, including the Slug & Lettuce and Yates chains.

Venture capital firm Better Capital sold the company – which has a total of 30 sites, most of them  Australian-themed Walkabout pubs – for £39.5million.

That is almost twice the £20million it committed when it bought Intertain two years ago. That money was to take on the debts of the chain, and cover future financing requirements.

The Comedy Loft venues in Camden, Birmingham, Reading and Watford were originally owned by Jongleurs.  

They were rebranded as Highlight when former owner Regent Inns when under in 2009. Intertain was formed from the debris, but the Jongluers brand name reverted to founders Maria Kempinska and John Davy, requiring the name change.

The venues went back to being Jongleurs again under a two-year licensing deal from 2014; and when that expired earlier this year, they became Comedy Loft venues, booked by Nottingham-based promoter Just The Tonic.

It is not known what impact today’s sale will have on the Comedy Loft venues, as Simon Longbottom, chief executive of Stonegate, made no specific mention of them in his statement announcing the deal.

He said the acquisition ‘consolidates our position’ for ‘sports-led’ bars in the High Street, adding: ‘Intertain… is a business we know well and which we have hand-picked for its complementary fit with our existing portfolio.’

Last year, Stonegate bought a collection of pubs including London’s Tattershall Castle, home to the long-running Boat Show comedy nights.

Intertain’s chief executive, John Leslie, said: ‘I couldn’t wish for a better home for Intertain than within Stonegate. Simon and the team are excellent operators, know the business well and will continue to invest, enabling both the business and the talented people within it to realise their full potential.

‘It is a great cultural fit with Stonegate’s growing portfolio and I look forward to seeing the business go from strength to strength.’

The acquisition was announced today, and is expected to be completed tomorrow. Shares in Better Capital rose almost 5 per cent on the news.

Published: 6 Dec 2016