BANKERS for Regent Inns, owner of the Australian-themed sports-bar chain Walkabout, are looking to appoint a corporate-restructuring specialist to evaluate the future of the struggling pub business.

The banks, including RBS, Barclays, NatWest and HSBC, have held discussions with a number of consultants and may already have brought in accountants BDO Stoy Hayward.

The company’s market value was just shy of £4m on Friday and it has debt of £80m, according to the latest set of results.

Regent Inns, which also owns Jongleurs comedy clubs and the American-style Old Orleans restaurant chain, has seen its share price slashed by 95% in the past 18 months.

Like many leisure companies, it has been hit by a series of negative factors, including the smoking ban, falling consumer confidence, England’s absence from Euro 2008 and the recent rise in alcohol-excise duty.

Hopes of a takeover were dashed last month after talks with potential suitors, including private-equity group Sun Capital Partners, fell through.

Regent Inns declined to comment on the matter.

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