The value of City Pub Group PLC (LON:CPC) has breached the £100mln mark on the first day of its new life as an AIM-listed company.
Shares are up to 181p in afternoon trading – 6% higher than the 170p it dished shares out at when it raised £46.6mln ahead of its initial public offering (IPO).
City – which has a portfolio of 34 ‘premium’ pubs across London and the south east – was co-founded back in 2011 by serial pub entrepreneur Clive Watson.
Aside from making appearances on reality TV show Made in Chelsea alongside his daughters Lucy and Tiffany, Watson is well-known in the industry having sold off his Capital Pub Company to Green King PLC (LON:GNK) for £93mln six years ago.
Watson’s co-founders are pub veteran David Bruce – who he worked with at Capital – and former Fuller’s managing director John Roberts.
From the money raised through its listing, City will aim to double its estate over the next three or four years, focusing mainly on larger cathedral cities such as Birmingham, Canterbury and Cardiff.
Among the group’s London portfolio is The Three Crowns in Shoreditch, The Nell Gwynne in Covent Garden and The Phene in Chelsea, which is sometimes used as a location for filming Made in Chelsea scenes.