Australian Venue Co continues acquisitions as it prepares for ASX listing

Last week Australian Venue Co (AVC) and listed pub landlord Hotel Property Investments Co acquired Surfair Beach Hotel south of Noosa for $20 million in the largest Queensland deal so far this year.

The hotel has been operating for 50 years and sits on the beachfront of Marcoola Beach, 25 minutes south of Noosa.

The sale comes as AVC prepares to list on the ASX with brokers from Goldman Sachs and Citi distributing detailed pre-deal reports to fund managers in late April.

Goldman Sachs analysts valued AVC between $975 million to $1.315 billion, based on FY22 earnings forecasts of $207 million.

AVC operates 175 venues across Australia and New Zealand and has been a major aggregator of leasehold sites since 2014.

Also on the Sunshine Coast this week, O’Malley’s in Mooloolaba sold at auction for $4,908,000. The property is leased to ALH until October 2025 and the O’Malley’s tavern licence also provides three detached bottle shop licenses for nearby BWS stores in Maroochydore, Buderim and Wurtulla.

The sale took place at Crown Melbourne where agents Burgess Rawson said there were six buyers on average for every property offered for sale.

Wednesday’s auction generated $100 million in sales and 96 per cent of stock was cleared on the day.