One of Melbourne’s oldest and grandest hotels, The Espy, and a string of other popular city watering holes have been sold in a $100 million-plus deal to a hotel group backed by Wall Street private equity giant KKR.
In a deal signed late on Tuesday, KKR-backed Australian Venue Company purchased the leasehold rights - the pub’s operating business rather than the freehold property - for eight of Sand Hill’s venues. The pubs sold to Australian Venue Company include The Espy, the Garden State Hotel in Flinders Lane, The Posty, Bridge Hotel, Holliava and Richmond Club all in Richmond, the Prahran Hotel and Terminus in Abbotsford.
“It’s a great group of pubs. We’ve looked at it for a number of years,” said Paul Waterson, chief executive of Australian Venue Company.