Plans for an Australian theme bar in Oxford's George Street are still on track, despite the financial difficulties of the company behind it.

Regent Inns said the Oxford plans were still going ahead, although it told investors that no new Walkabout bars would open this year.

Spokesman Vanessa Maydon said: "We have exchanged contracts on the site in Oxford, but it's still subject to licensing and planning applications, so it would not be opening before July 2005 anyway.

"All the indications are that it is still going ahead."

Last week, shares in Regent Inns fell almost 20 per cent to an historic low, after the group warned profits would be well below market forecasts and there would be no increase in the dividend paid to shareholders.

The company also announced that Michael Thiele, the operations director responsible for the 49 Walkabout bars, had resigned "with immediate effect" after happy hour promotions failed to stem sliding sales. When Regent Inns applied for an entertainment licence for the Walkabout bar on the site of the Opium Den restaurant last month, police warned that officers might have to be removed from Oxford's streets in the daytime to provide enough cover at night.

Councillors responded by agreeing a united strategy to restrain the growth of night clubs.

Chief executive Stephen Haupt said the main sales problems were with 12 Walkabouts in "consistently poorly performing venues".

Many of the rest of the Walkabouts performed below expectations during late March and April, including the Easter holiday.