Two bidders swoop on Wolves

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The management of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W&DB) are set to consider two rival bids for their company.Noble House Leisure and...

The management of Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries (W&DB) are set to consider two rival bids for their company.

Noble House Leisure and Pubmaster are to go into battle after both submitting indicative bids before a deadline of noon on April 20. It comes after nearly a year of uncertainty for W&DB which owns 880 tenanted pubs and employs 16,000 people at its four breweries and 940 managed houses.

Noble House said its bid was at 500p a share, which values the brewer at £472m, while Pubmaster claimed its offer was "in excess of the rival bid".

A spokeswoman for venture capital firm Botts & Co, which is backing Noble House, said: "An indicative bid has been submitted, and we hope to enter discussions with the board of W&DB as soon as possible."

If Noble House is successful, it intends to sell about 1,000 pubs to tenanted operator Enterprise Inns. It is also believed to have lined up a further disposal of 80 larger managed houses to Greene King for about £80m.

Headed by hotel and restaurant entrepreneur Robert Breare, Noble House is expected to focus on branded managed houses, such as Pitcher & Piano. It already owns Jim Thompson's bars and last year took over Oriental Restaurants and Fatty Arbuckle's American-theme restaurants. Tony Carson, who created Jim Thompson's and the former Dragon Inns, is managing director.

Pubmaster, which owns 2,000 tenanted pubs, is understood to have made a bid valuing W&DB at about £481m. It is keen to expand after failing in its bid for Whitbread's 3,000-strong estate in March.

Its main financial backer is believed to be Germany's Commerzbank. Its previous backer, WestLB, was forced to drop out because it had been involved with Noble House, which would have led to a conflict of interests.

A spokesman for the pub company said: "Pubmaster is in formal discussions with the advisers of W&DB concerning the acquisition of the entire company."

W&DB's board is due to meet on Monday (April 23) to consider the two indicative bids before making a recommendation.

It is unclear what plans the two bidders have for W&DB's breweries in Wolverhampton, Hartlepool, Burton-on-Trent and Mansfield, although industry watchers expect one or two to be closed or sold.

Nomura Principal Finance Group, which owns Unique Pub Company and Inn Partnership, is thought to have considered making a bid but decided against it.