Australia's Taverner pubs group up for sale

Australia's number two pub company, Taverner Hotel Group Pty. Ltd., is up for sale with indicative bids likely to top A$350 million ($394 million), a key shareholder has announced.

Taverner is majority owned by private equity firms Catalyst Investment Managers and Advent Management Group.

Potential buyers have been sent documentation on the pubs business and invited to lodge indicative bids by the end of August, paving the way for a possible sale within months.

However, Catalyst Investment Director Trent Peterson told Reuters that floating the business on the Australian Stock Exchange also remained an option.

Peterson declined to say who had received the documentation on the financial performance of the business.

"We have a reasonably healthy list of interested parties," he said.

Analysts said Australia's largest grocer Woolworths Ltd. and rival Coles Myer Ltd. , who together hold more than a 40 per cent share of the fragmented takeaway liquor market, would likely look closely at Taverner.

A sale to another private equity or financial investor is also a possibility.

Coles Myer and Woolworths declined to comment, but both are seeking to expand liquor sales.

"I think they would both be interested, probably Coles more so," Commonwealth Securities retail analyst Angela Frino said.

A Woolworths-led joint venture last year paid A$1.3 billion for pubs and liquor business ALH, defeating a rival bid from Coles Myer and Macquarie Bank Ltd. .

Coles has since moved on to a strategy of rolling-out large-format liquor stores as it boosts its liquor market presence.

Taverner has expanded to 33 pubs, which each include gaming machines, from only seven in the past four years. More than half the pubs are in Victoria state and it also pubs in South Australia and New South Wales.

Peterson said Taverner was also pursuing its own expansion plans while the sales process was underway.

Citigroup and UBS are advising Taverner.

- REUTERS