Ritblat calls time on Merchant Innspub chain

摘要

Merchant Inns, the pub company jointly owned by Sir John Ritblat, has been placed into administration.Deloitte has been brought in as administrator on the seven-strong chain, despite the pub trading well.A spokeswoman for Merchant Inns said: "We can confirm the discovery of financial liabilities in the company in recent weeks. The administrators have only just been appointed and are therefore still determining the precise nature of the liabilities."Ritblat, who is being tipped as acandidate to buy back Merchant Inns, teamed up with Robert Breare, the leisure entrepreneur, in October 2007 to purchase the chain when it had five pubs. The pair are thought to have put in Elm of equity, with Ritblat investing more in mezzanine finance.