Gastro chain sold to Greene King

Pub giant Greene King has bought Blackburn-based pub and restaurant chain Cloverleaf Restaurants for £55.8m.

Cloverleaf owns 12 pub-restaurants across the midlands and North of England and is on the lookout for additional sites, with ten new sites proposed to open over the next two years. The chain's 12 pubs include Waterfold Farm in Bury and Lymewood Farm in Haydock.

The price paid by Greene King is equivalent to 8.7 times Cloverleaf's pre-tax profit.

Greene King raised £207m in a rights issue in 2009. The Cloverleaf deal and investment of £25m in its ten new restaurants will come from this rights issue.