Piedmont nominates new man to M&B board

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has received a proposal to appoint Ronald Robson, a representative of Piedmont, the group owned by Joe Lewis, who owns 23 per cent of the managed pub operator.

Piedmont can legally put forward two representatives to be appointed to M&B's board and has nominated Robson, a former finance chief at Scottish brewer Belhaven. Robson currently works as group finance director at Tamar Capital Partners, which is owned by an associated Piedmont company.

The move comes only months after a fall-out between Piedmont and M&B, which saw its previous representatives shown the exit following disagreements over financial and management policy.

Despite having just been nominated to the company's board Robson will be up for re-election at M&B's forthcoming AGM, to be held on January 28, 2010. It is understood his re-election will be given the nod at the end of the month.

A spokesman for Piedmont said the company believed Robson would make "a valuable contribution" to the workings of the board, while sources close to M&B said the group would hope relations with the new man would be better than with his predecessors.

Piedmont is understood to want to strengthen the M&B board following a series of financial disasters including the multi-million pound swap losses following the aborted property joint venture with former shareholder Robert Tchenguiz.

It has publicly stated it has four candidates in mind to join the M&B board, including former Scottish & Newcastle boss Jeremy Blood.