Merger means clash of styles

The merger of Punch and Mitchells & Butlers would create a marked contrast in styles at the top of the organisation.

Punch boss Giles Thorley would remain chief executive of the enlarged Punch, while M&B boss Tim Clarke would get kicked upstairs to become non-executive chairman.

Thorley, still only 40, will have overseen meteoric growth from running 2,000 or so tenanted pubs on flotation in 1992 to the UK's largest operator of managed and tenanted pubs by a country mile.

The early years of Punch's expansion saw the company swallowing up tenanted companies like InnSpired, Pubmaster and Avebury. In 2006, Thorley, who lives in Cheltenham and has three children, surprised himself by clinching the auction for the UK's second-largest managed operator Spirit, stealing it away from a disappointed Robert Tchenguiz, who had bid around £100m more for the company.

Merging with Mitchells & Butlers would again frustrate Robert Tchenguiz, who would become a smaller shareholder in a much bigger company.

Thorley's personal style is direct and informal - his tie is normally dispensed with by the time of the journalist's lunch on Punch results day. Those who work with him hold him in very high regard.

A merger with M&B would vindicate his decision to stay with Punch 15 months ago when he had earlier signalled his intention to move on.

Tim Clarke, a decade older than Thorley, is a former Panmure Gordon drinks industry analyst who joined Bass in 1990.

The next decade or so saw Clarke frustrated in his desire to see the company's pubs receive the attention he felt they deserved.

Since demerger five years ago from the company's hotel division, Clarke has driven impressive market share gains. Patrician in bearing, Clarke, nevertheless, has a real passion for pubs and a populist touch.