Bar chain value halves in day; in association with RBS.

Byline: Andrew Mernin

ABAR and restaurant company said last night it was in an "unprecedented" position after its share price almost halved when a major shareholder unloaded a large tract of its holding at half its market value.

The equity sale in Newcastle's Premium Bars & Restaurants saw its price fall from 63.3p yesterday morning to 34p at the close of trading.

It ended a troubling week in which property-to-banking group Dawnay, Day, which owned 30% of PBR, called in receivers to subsidiary companies on Wednesday.

That prompted the resignation of two Premium non-executive directors, Alka Bali and K C Wong, who had been responsible for the Dawnay, Day stake.

Premium executive chairman Mark Jones said last night: "We are in uncharted territory and it's unprecedented for a public company to have one of its largest shareholders get into such financial difficulty so quickly.

"I'm pretty certain that there was a forced sale by Dawnay, Day but there's very little we can do in the current circumstances. The company carries on and I look forward to meeting the new shareholders."

When the stock market opened yesterday, 1.5 million shares in the company were sold at 30p.

Under market law, it could take three working days for the seller's identity to be confirmed, but it is widely understood to be Dawnay, Day. A City analyst said the price had dropped heavily as the market corrected itself after the cut-price sale.

Dawnay, Day has several businesses in its structure, two of which have been placed in receivership. Property firms Starlight Investments and Insureprofit are now run by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward.

BDO spokesman Shay Bannon said: "These companies are within the property investment arm of the group and are largely real estate businesses of significant value.

"There are of course other businesses in the wider Dawnay, Day group including some well known names.

"Although we have not been appointed to these businesses, we understand that they presently continue to trade under their existing management."

Premium - which is moving its head office to Manchester - runs 13 Living Room restaurants and a number of bars and clubs nationally, including Newcastle's Blu Bambu. Last night Premium was worth pounds 6.3m. Last year it bought the Living Room chain for pounds 28m.

No one was available for comment at Dawnay, Day.