Greene King's Spirit bid approved by shareholders

13-Jan-2015 - Last updated on 14-Jan-2015 at 08:41 GMT

Greene King shareholders have approved the company’s bid to take over Spirit Pub Company.

At a meeting today 99.89% of shareholders backed the £773.6m deal.

Rooney Anand, chief executive of Greene King, said “It is pleasing to have received such overwhelming support for this transaction from shareholders. The combination of Greene King and Spirit Pub Company will create the UK’s leading managed pub company and deliver significant value for shareholders through the capture of attractive synergies and anticipated earnings accretion.”

It follows the announcement last week that Magners producer C&C Group had ruled out bidding, after deciding a ”combination with Spirit no longer meets the Group’s risk adjusted return criteria”.

The boards of Greene King and Spirit announced on 4 November that they had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer.

It will create a 3,127-strong pub company.

UPDATE

Spirit shareholders voted in favour of the deal on 13 January, with 99.99% of those voting approving the bid.