S&N bidders line up

Russian billionaires Simon and David Reuben have joined the line-up of prospective bidders for the £2.3bn Scottish & Newcastle retail estate.

Trade bidders including Mitchells & Butler, Laurel Pub Company, Spirit Group and Pubmaster find themsleves up against a who's who's of serial financial bidders tempted by the secure income stream offered by one of the UK's biggest pub esates.

The Reubens, who made their fortune in the Russian aluminium industry during the 1990s, were also among the potential bidders for department store group Selfridges recently. The brothers own a substantial chunk of London real estate including properties in the West End and Victoria.

As the deadline for S&N bids closed, there were at least nine bidders thought to have registered their interest in acquiring the £1,450-strong pub business, which is being sold to allow S&N to focus on its global brewing interests. The prize is likely to create some interesting alliances.

Mitchells & Butlers is reported to be working with Whitbread on a deal that would see M&B add the bulk of the S&N pubs to its own estate while Whitbread converted others to its Brewers Fayre and Brewsters pub restaurant concepts.

Several of the venture capital firms in the running also hope to work with pub groups on management deals. These include Pubmaster and Terra Firma, and Spirit and Texas Pacific, with others likely to seek to form partnerships as the auction process proceeds.

Related articles:​

First round deadline for S&N bids passes (23 July 2003)

S&N sale building to a £2.3bn frenzy (30 June 2003)