Punch Taverns has approached investors in Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) about plans to mount a £5bn merger that would create Britain's biggest pubs group. Bankers at Morgan Stanley, which is acting for Punch, have sounded out a handful of top M&B shareholders about the proposal, which includes a cash-and-paper offer that could value M&B at about 800p a share, well above Friday's 641p closing price. M&B investors are still considering the plan, which would create a group of 11,000 pubs, but a number are determined that the company pursues the strategy favoured by Robert Tchenguiz, the property entrepreneur. Tchenguiz, who owns about 20 per cent of the company, wants M&B to put its property assets into a £4.5 billion tax-efficient real-estate investment trust. - Sunday Times
The Takeover Panel is expected to put pressure on Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) and Punch Taverns to spell out details of their talks to form Britain's largest pub operator. Reports have claimed that advisers to the two companies had been locked in talks on Friday. M&B has been under pressure from investors to unlock the value of its property portfolio and a deal with Punch would have gone some way towards that. Last night a spokesman for M&B played down the speculation. "There are no ongoing merger talks and there has been no approach [from Punch]," he said. - Sunday Telegraph
The British pub, adored and envied all over the world, is disappearing before our very eyes and with it our national drink, beer, as the nation that invented jingoism succumbs to its preference for anything foreign. It says as much as our football players' performance on the pitch - or the number of foreigners in the Premier League - that the England team are sponsored by a Danish brewer. And how do we greet tourists from the Continent arriving at our magnificently refurbished St Pancras station? With a bar selling fizzy French wine at £8.95 a glass. British beer and the British pub are joined at the hip, intermingled like no other alcoholic combination. Stop reading this and get down to your local. Buy a pint. Talk to somebody, get a life and save a British institution. - Sunday Times