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Nomura wins Bass pubs
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February 14, 2001: 12:45 p.m. ET
Japanese investment bank pays $911M for 988 smaller establishments
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LONDON (CNN) - Nomura became Britain's biggest pub operator Wednesday when the bank agreed to pay £625 million ($911 million) for Bass's pubs.
Britain's Bass picked the big Japanese investment bank from several bidders, including British insurer Legal & General – according to media reports -- for the sale of 988 smaller-sized establishments.
 The small pubs portfolio will add to Nomura's stable of roughly 4,500 locations built up over the last 4 years. Since 1997, Nomura has spent more than £1.5 billion to build up its pubs estate in Britain and it now has about a 10 percent market share.
Guy Hands, managing director of Principle Finance Group, a unit of Nomura, said: "We continue to believe, and have demonstrated, that there is considerable opportunity to add value by focusing on local pubs which are core to the leisure landscape of the UK."
With a total of some 6,000 pubs, Nomura will eclipse its closest rival – privately held Punch Taverns with about 5,000 pubs – as Britain's biggest operator of drinking establishments, the Financial Times reported Wednesday.
Bass is in the midst of a corporate makeover to focus on its hotels business, and last year it sold its brewing business to Belgium's Interbrew. However, after that deal went through, UK regulators demanded that Interbrew sell the business on competition grounds.
In total, Bass owns some 3,000 pubs, 800 in its restaurants group and about 1,200 branded outlets such as All Bar One and Harvester. The unbranded estate was put up for sale in September.
Bass holds an annual shareholders meeting Thursday, and its management is expected to elaborate on whether it plans to increase its existing share buy-back program.
Consolidation comes to a head
Scottish & Newcastle, Britain's biggest brewer with brands such as Kronenbourg and John Courage, announced plans last month to sell some 740 of its nearly 2,700 pubs and turn another 180 into leased outlets as a way to save money.
S&N has received a number of expressions of interest in those pubs, a company spokesman said Wednesday, but the sale process is expected to last as much as six months and nothing is imminent so far. 
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