News and Events
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s West End theatre sale collapses
11th Dec 2010
Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group had, in October, agreed a deal - believed to be in the region of £50 million - to sell the Palace, Her Majesty’s, the Cambridge and the New London theatres to GradeLinnit - a consortium led by Grade and theatrical agent Michael Linnit. Final contracts, though, had yet to be signed.
Now, a statement released by RUG today says that while “both sides remain satisfied that the price was and is a fair reflection of the value of these theatres…At the eleventh hour, GradeLinnit raised issues relating to a long-standing contractual agreement between one of the theatres and a production company about a possible future production.
“GradeLinnit decided that they would not want to take this contract forward as owners of the theatre. The Really Useful Group has chosen to continue with the agreement and therefore the sale will not be going ahead.”
RUG claims it has received a number of other approaches for the four West End venues, although it does not say at what price.
The group’s chairman Mark Wordsworth added: “We are disappointed to have been unable to reach an agreement with GradeLinnit after its original unsolicited approach. However the theatres in question are having their best ever season and will become part of a new division within the Really Useful Group.”
No comment has been issued by GradeLinnit on the development.
Before today’s announcement, it had looked as if the deal was nearing completion. Staff at the theatres had been briefed as to how the sale would affect them and Lloyd Webber had described the decision to part with the venues as “totally gut wrenching”, but said that “following my illness last year I was advised to reduce the debt in the family company”.
He had planned to use the proceeds of the sale to “continue to invest in and develop the Palladium and the Theatre Royal Drury Lane as well as reducing the Group’s debt”.
RUG sold its four West End playhouses - the Lyric, Garrick, Apollo and Duchess - to Nimax Theatres in 2005 for £11.5 million and also offloaded its ticketing arm See Tickets for an undisclosed sum in 2008 to a subsidiary of Stage Entertainment.
Lloyd Webber’s intellectual property estate - including the rights to shows such as the Phantom of the Opera and Cats - was not included the deal.
Source: The Stage
