Beach Hotel, Byron Bay, sold for $70 million

The Beach Hotel in Byron Bay has sold for $70 million to a Melbourne-based private equity firm backed by the wealthy Liberman family.

The rumoured sale was first reported in The Sunday Telegraph.

The vendor, racing car driver Max Twigg, then denied to The Australian last week that he was selling the pub in the iconic northern NSW township, adding: “I am a happy owner, I have been for ten years.”

But it has since been confirmed by The Australian the hotel, overlooking Byron’s Main Beach, has sold under a long settlement agreement.

It’s gone to the Impact Investment Group, in a record-breaking deal.

Mr Twigg paid about $44 million for the hotel a decade ago.

The hotel in Bay Street was developed by John Cornell about 25 years ago.

Cornell built the hotel in Byron’s Bay Street for about $9 million in 1990.

The hotel’s licensee, Melbourne restaurateur John van Haandel, has exercised his option to continue running the popular hotel under the remainder of his long-term lease arrangements.

The hotel, Byron Bay’s largest venue, hit the market mid last year with price expectations of between $75 million and $80 million.

Impact Investment Group has more than $400 million in funds under management. Investors include wealthy individuals, families, institutional investors, corporations and foundations.

The 6.3 per cent yield struck for the famous hotel's freehold title also reportedly set a new benchmark, with recent major metro pub deals struck on yields around 8 to 8.5 per cent

According to an information memorandum prepared for last year's sales campaign, the pub brought in annual revenue of about $4.3 millon from its multiple bars, bistro, beer garden, bottle shop, gaming room, 25 hotel rooms and conference facilities

Impact joins the push by private equity groups into the pub sector after White & Partnerse private investment arm of the White real estate family, snapped up the Allawah and General Gordon pubs in Sydney for a combined $48 million.

Pub values have surged in the past 18 months with yields compressing by 50-100 basis point over the past year.