Two British Indians, who own a 157-year-old brewery, are joining the stock market through a reverse takeover of an AIM-listed pub operator.
LONDON: Two British Indians, who own a 157-year-old brewery, are joining the stock market through a reverse takeover of an AIM-listed pub operator.
The Dusanj brothers, Ajmail and Sudarghara, who rescued Robert Cain and Co from collapse five years ago, will announce on Friday that their company has been subsumed by Honeycombe Leisure in a deal that values the enlarged company at about £37million, including debt and stock.
The deal is expected to involve Honeycombe changing its name to the Cains Beer Company and will have Dusanj brothers on the board as chief executive and chief operating officer. The move will give the brothers a combined stake of about 58 per cent in the enlarged company.
The deal signifies a remarkable turnaround for Cains Brewery, which is based in Stanhope Street in Liverpool, all thanks to the enterprising brothers. The brothers came to Britain with their father Surinder from Punjab in 1962. They started out working in their father’s fish and chips shop in Kent and then went on to buy several fish and chips shops, off-licences and corner shops before buying a failed drinks wholesaler in the Midlands.
They acquired Cains Brewery after it had been put up for sale by the Danish Brewery Group on the brink of closure for the second time.
Today, Cain sells beer to its own estate of nine pubs as well as to third-party operators, supermarkets and wholesalers. Last year, it made operating profits of £4,00,000 from a turnover of £24 million.
Honeycombe, for its part has 100 pubs in the North West of England, and has been short of funds for some time and has been in bid talks for most of the last 12 months.
The acquisition will allow Cains to boost its sales by putting its range of Cains beers into the Honeycombe estate.
The brothers, who were controversially refused membership of the Independent Family of Brewers of Britain — an exclusive club that so far has only white family brewers — see the deal as the platform to turning Cains into a national player.
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