Aston Villa co-owner Wes Edens has closed the acquisition through his company Fortress Investment Group of Loungers, a UK-based pub and restaurant company owning such brands as Lounge and Cosy Club, reportedly for over £350m. This particular company, Loungers, boasts around 280 sites within the United Kingdom through its various pubs, restaurants and bars.
Fortress have also bought previously from Edens’ significant portfolio of investments in Majestic Wine, Punch Pubs, Vagabond and cinema chain Curzon for something close to $5m. Baths, established in 1998 by Edens, Robert Kauffman, Randal Nardone, Peter Briger and Michael Novogratz, has assets pegged at roughly $48bn.
Loungers co-founder and Chairman Alex Reilley stated, “We are as ambitious as ever and see Fortress as the ideal partner to take Loungers into the next phase of its growth journey.”
Edens bought Villa in 2018 along with business partner Nassef Sawiris just as Dr. Tony Xia was taking the club to the brink. Since then, they have presided over a fantastic and significant improvement in performance on the pitch – overseeing the club’s rise from mid-table Championship to the Champions League – while at the same time improving Villa Park, the surrounding area and, importantly, the academy.
Through the holdings company V Sports, NSWE have also acquired a stake in Portuguese side Vitoria de Guimaraes and established partnerships across the globe with ZED FC in Egypt, Vissel Kobe in Japan and Real Union in Spain, the latter being owned by Unai Emery.
