Waiting for a mega takeover deal - akin to waiting for a bus

I dunno. You wait ages for a juicy takeover battle then two come along almost at once. Just like waiting for a bus.

The dust has barely settled on Scottish & Newcastle and now Punch Taverns' merger proposal for Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) - if successful - could further overhaul the pub market landscape.

I doubt Punch boss Giles Thorley can believe his luck. Long has he coveted M&B's assets. Now he has the most opportunistic of opportunities to bring them into the fold - and at a discount, a situation unthinkable had M&B not gotten itself into a strategic 'pickle' recently.

True, there are those who suggest that Punch needs this deal as much as M&B does. And others who suggest shareholders might be aggrieved at the potential for earnings dilution the current proposal envisages, in the short term at least, and baulk at agreeing to the thing happening.

Meanwhile - and I know I've touched on this before - would people be decrying M&B's management team if it had successfully implemented the Tchenguiz property deal and stuffed its shareholders' pockets with bundles of used fivers?

Of course not, but in one sense I don't think this is the point. I know striving for shareholder value is a priority for businesses, while shareholders have different investment criteria.

That said, I have a degree of sympathy with the M&B shareholder who at the group's recent AGM asked what on earth it thought it was doing going down the Tchenguiz/property joint venture route in the first place? Never mind "unlocking shareholder value"; he merely looked forward to his dividend and the hope that his investment in a group he'd hitherto admired would appreciate in value, slowly but surely, over the long term.

The pub industry makes much of its being steeped in traditional values, while highlighting its prominent role in the social and cultural fabric of our nation.

A headlong dash to placate a few influential shareholders, as has happened with M&B, makes a bit of a mockery of this munificent argument. And it can have unfortunate consequences, as Tim Clarke et al are finding out.

Still, their pain could be Punch's gain…