The Ashmont Inn Hotel has sold for a staggering $13 million to one of the country’s wealthiest families. Photo: Supplied.
The Ashmont Inn Hotel has sold for a staggering $13 million, with one of Australia’s wealthiest families taking ownership of the popular pub.
The Laundy family, known for their multi-billion dollar hotel empire, added the Wagga venue to their portfolio, which now boasts more than 40 pubs across the state.
The sale of the pub ends nearly 50 years of ownership by the Mathot family, who opened it in 1978.
Billionaire Arthur Laundy told the Financial Review he was made aware of the Ashmont Inn Hotel after one of his partners, Sean O’Hara, the developer of the future Estella mega-pub and owner of the Sportsmen’s Club Hotel and Thomas Blamey Tavern, made him aware of a potential sale.
Arthur’s son, Stu Laundy, said the move into Wagga was one they were looking forward to, stating the family was looking to “back some young guys” to operate the pub.
“We’ve decided to again back some young guys into a little pub in Wagga Wagga, and we’ll see how they go before looking at other opportunities with them,” Stu Laundy told the publication Hotel Conversation.
“Our family loves the industry, and as such has a long history of backing people and has done so very successfully with numerous parties across multiple sub-sectors within the asset class.”
The Laundy family are best known for owning a string of waterfront pubs in Sydney, such as the Woolley Bay Hotel in Woolloomooloo and the Watson Bay Hotel.
HTL Property managed the sale of the hotel with property director Blake Edwards now having overseen 10 of the past 11 sales of pubs in Wagga and surrounds.
“Wagga Wagga has matured into a true regional capital. Population growth, infrastructure investment and institutional presence are translating directly into sustained hotel demand. Buyers are increasingly prepared to underwrite long-term fundamentals rather than short-term volatility,” Mr Edwards said.
“The result reflects a broader recalibration of investor focus toward major inland cities.”
The sale comes six months after former Wallaby international Bill Young purchased the Gem Hotel in Griffith for a record $50 million.
HTL Property Director Sam Handy cited the important history of the Ashmont Inn Hotel and the work the Mathot Family did in preserving it.
“The venue has traded reliably, but with minimal reinvestment over time,” he said.
“That combination of defensive cash flow with embedded upside continues to resonate strongly with experienced operators who understand where value is created.”
HTL Property advisor Paddy Dalton added that the Mathot family’s original ownership of the hotel was emblematic of a time when pubs would remain in families for generations, which had since changed.
“The Mathot family built this venue, backed it through decades of change, and chose the timing carefully, with the outcome respecting both the legacy of the asset and the future it now enters,” Mr Dalton said.
“Like many others, this genesis of transaction was a generational decision.”
