This Month
Pub boom rolls into Tamworth with $160m sale of five venues
In one of the highest prices achieved for a portfolio sale outside the capital cities, the venues in the NSW town have sold to family-run IMG Hotels Group.
Inside the bureaucratic chaos over the future of Merivale’s Club Rose Bay
Woollahra Council wants to shut down the billionaire’s beer garden, but says Paul Scully must make the decision on the site. “It’s your call.”
What this Sydney silk learnt behind the bar (of his own pub)
It was serendipity that a budding Sydney barrister purchased a venue called the Courthouse Hotel nearly 40 years ago. Now, Brian Dooley is calling time.
Sam Arnaout’s Midas touch turns suburban pubs into pokie gold mines
Iris Capital has a remarkable knack of attracting high-rolling gamblers to its NSW hotels, increasing gambling profits and supercharging the value of the pubs.
Sydney’s Oaks Hotel sells for $140m in mega pub deal
The deal ties with the sale of Byron Bay’s Beach Hotel as the second-highest price paid for a pub and consolidates the Gallaghers as leading publicans.
Eyes on Tom Wallace as clock ticks on Adgemis pub deal
Receivers McGrathNicol and FTI Consulting are getting antsy about the situation and starting to think about temporary management solutions.
Pub baron snaps up marina for $20.75m
Hospitality star Glenn Piper has upsized in a strategic move to complement the $45 million eco-lodge resort he’s building on the Whitsundays’ Hook Island.
Hemmes’ Club Rose Bay under review over beer garden saga
The pub king’s latest venue is winning patrons, but has also drawn the attention of the local council and NSW government. The neighbours aren’t happy either.
February
Fairfax family lists Sydney hotel and land with $100m price guide
The Kingsford landholding, home to the Regent Hotel, has been held by a company which has represents the interests of the Fairfax family for more than 25 years.
Hotelier Andrew Lazarus snaps up western Sydney pub for $25m
Horsley Park Tavern, built and run by the same family since 1980, offloaded at a time the region is under development – from housing to data centres.
Pub matriarch claims children never paid for Gold Coast apartment
The heirs to the De Angelis pub empire have been fighting over a multimillion-dollar Main Beach unit. But their mother is now staking her claim.
Long-time publican back in the game with near-$15m coastal pub buy
Rod “Ned” Kelly, who once worked with prolific investors like John Singleton and Mark Carnegie, is jumping back into the pub space with his latest seaside buy.
January
Laundys hope to turn ‘pub test’ nous into radio empire gold
The billionaire family told staff at Sydney’s 2GB and Melbourne’s 3AW that they were “long-time listeners, first time owners” after acquiring Nine Radio.
Private equity giant snaps up Sydney venues amid roaring pubs trade
Australian Venue Co is controlled by US and Hong Kong private equity. Foreign investors are showing increasing interest in Australia’s buoyant pubs sector.
Four of bankrupt publican Jon Adgemis’ venues sell for $130m
The former KPMG dealmaker-turned-publican was declared bankrupt last year after accumulating $1.8 billion in debts building up his hospitality empire.
Travel ban slapped on pub director entangled in $245m tax scam
Mark Toma, former director of collapsed hospitality group Virtical, is appealing ATO orders that he can’t leave the country.
Laundys snap up $13m NSW Riverina pub despite ‘too much red tape’
Headed by Arthur Laundy, the family has struck its first pub deal for 2026. But the billionaire hotelier says there are plenty of reasons to be cautious.
Pub siblings in spat over Gold Coast apartment
Four siblings of the De Angelis Sydney pub family are fighting over a Gold Coast apartment they have owned together for more than 15 years.
Hrdlicka’s first move at Endeavour looks like $5-pint night
To take investors to the promised land, the new chief executive has pulled out one of the oldest tricks in the book: cheap beer.
Nanny-state health-and-safety fascism is shutting down British pubs
To drive around England, urban and rural, these days is to see an epidemic of recently closed boozers.
