Walkabout's new owners Better Capital plot new pubs

Jon Moulton’s Better Capital bought the Antipodean-focused bar chain in November in a deal worth £20 million

Lucy Tobin
Thursday 19 March 2015 12:10 GMT
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Walkabout, the bar chain which this week saw a customer tumble into the Thames to be rescued by one of its barman, today assured the public that its own business will stay afloat after pulling off a financial restructuring and setting out expansion plans.

Jon Moulton’s Better Capital — which bought the Antipodean-focused bar chain in November in a deal worth £20 million — plans to open more Walkabouts in the UK.

Veteran venture capitalist Moulton’s Better Capital is best known for having put its delivery business City Link into administration on Christmas Eve. The firm bought Walkabout’s parent Intertain from its creditors, who included Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland, after it was part of a controversial pre-pack of Regent Inns in 2009.

Last month, Intertain was put into a Company Voluntary Arrangement to “refocus the business”, which Better Capital said was approved by creditors earlier this month. Better claimed the firm’s 32 bars and comedy venues — which include student-loving branches of Jongleurs bars as well as 27 Walkabouts — “is expected to generate solid earnings” for 2015.

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