Tim Clarke says M&B could hit the acquisition trail

In spite of announcing losses of £274m today, Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) believes it can exploit the recent poor run of trading from its competitors to acquire more pubs, possibly even entire groups.

Tim Clarke, M&B's chief executive, said he believed there would be "consolidation opportunities as our competitors experience sharp like-for-like declines".

Acquiring rival pub operators was "one option" M&B would be looking at as it kicked off its latest strategic review, Clarke confirmed today, after it admitted making a post-tax hedging loss of £274m.

However in the face of growing criticism of the group's finance deals - and with finance director Karim Naffah's resignation - Clarke denied M&B had taken its "eye off the ball" during the last 12 months.

Responding to the suggestion that while operationally on track M&B had taken its eye off the ball in recent months, Clarke said: "If our eye was off the ball we wouldn't have reported perhaps the best trading figures of the recent crop of numbers in the industry."

Asked why he had offered to resign as chief executive, Clarke said: "I felt the scale of losses was on my watch and it was my responsibility to offer my resignation.

"The board wished me to continue to lead the business forward through its operational growth strategy," he added.

Clarke said that M&B had had in place the financial structure to support the property deal with Tchenguiz, one which would have offered considerable value for shareholders.

However "we had the great misfortune to see it snatched away from us by the credit crunch. We were left with the legacy of hedges", he added.

Clarke said the group would update the market in May on the progress of its latest strategic review.