S&N shareholders vote 99 to 1 in favour of takeover
31-Mar-2008 By Hamish Champ
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) chairman Sir Brian Stewart described today's decision by shareholders to approve Carlsberg and Heineken's takeover...
28-Mar-2008 By The PMA Team
Punch Taverns has withdrawn its merger proposal for Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) but is still pursuing other possible deals involving the...
Punch Taverns withdraws M&B merger plans
28-Mar-2008 By Hamish Champ
Punch Taverns has given up on its ambitious plan to merge with Mitchells & Butlers.The group said this morning that discussions "have led the...
M&B rejects analyst's cash crisis claims
19-Mar-2008 By Hamish Champ
Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has rejected comments from a City analyst that it will have to cut investment in the business.In an investment note...
Inspired Gaming looks to exit pubs
17-Mar-2008 By Hamish Champ
Inspired Gaming, the supplier of more than 80,000 AWP machines to leisure outlets, is looking to exit the pub sector after reporting weak trading...
Debt burden prompts Walkabout deal
04-Mar-2008 By Hamish Champ
Reducing the group's debt burden lay behind Regent Inns' decision to put seven of its Walkabout freehold sites on the market in a sale and leaseback...
Private equity firms plan bid for M&B
21-Feb-2008 By The PMA Team
Private equity groups Blackstone and CVC are planning a bid for Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) that would see the company being taken private....
18-Feb-2008 By The PMA Team
Private equity groups Blackstone and CVC are planning a bid for Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) that would see the company being taken private....
Mitchells & Butlers property deal still on the cards
11-Feb-2008 By Hamish Champ
A number of shareholders in Mitchell's & Butlers (M&B) are said to be still hoping for a property deal to revitalise the value of their...
City diary special: M&B
07-Feb-2008 By The PMA Team
Those hedge losses in layman's terms Last week's belated closure of the Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) hedge position - at a pre-tax cost of...
07-Feb-2008 By The PMA Team
MA deputy editor The PMA Team considers a disastrous 12 months for Mitchells & Butlers
'Punch's shares offer for M&B is worth less than the group's pub freeholds'
05-Feb-2008
Punch Taverns is seeking to win control of rival pub group Mitchells & Butlers through an £11bn merger proposal that offers M&B investors...
Mitchells & Butlers: the new S&N?
03-Feb-2008 By Hamish Champ
After M&B last week admitted to losing hundreds of millions of pounds in a hedge gone wrong (the most I ever lost in a hedge was a football), the...
31-Jan-2008 By The PMA Team
Mitchells & Butlers board given a rough ride at a stormy shareholder meeting
M&B now a takeover target, says City
29-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Shares in Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) rose five per cent today despite the group revealing more than a quarter of a billion pounds-worth of...
S&N succumbs to Carlsberg/Heineken for £7.6bn
25-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Carlsberg and Heineken have finally succeeded in their bitter battle to acquire Scottish & Newcastle (S&N).The pair announced this morning...
Young & Co proposes four-for-one share split
17-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Young & Co, the south London-headquartered pubco, is proposing a four-for-one share split to increase liquidity in trading of the group's...
17-Jan-2008 By The PMA Team
All the latest City Gossip
15-Jan-2008
Regent Inns has received a number of preliminary approaches for the company
Regent Inns says it has received bid interest
15-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Regent Inns has received what it described as a "number of preliminary approaches" with a view to buying the company.In a statement today the group,...
'No comment' on talk of raised offer for S&N
15-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
A spokesman for Carlsberg today declined to comment on reports that the Danish brewer and its consortium partner Heineken were set to increase their...
15-Jan-2008 By The PMA Team
A total of 55% of pub company chief executives expect a downturn in 2008 with 82% expecting a slump in January and February. According to the...
Dark days, yes, but perhaps a buying opportunity
13-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Speaking to City analysts last week there is no doubt that the outlook for the licensed sector is a darn gloomy one. Shares in listed operators have...
11-Jan-2008 By The PMA Team
Rumours of a Punch bid for Mitchells & Butlers has undermined its share price because of the limited logic of such a deal, analyst Douglas Jack claims
The Restaurant Group sees 'subdued' growth in final quarter
09-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
The stock market value of The Restaurant Group (TRG), whose operations include the Frankie & Benny's and Bluebeckers pub restaurant chains, fell...
Carlsberg hits back at latest S&N claims
08-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Carlsberg has hit back strongly at the latest claims by Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) that it has breached the terms of its Baltic Beverage...
S&N says report backs its BBH case
07-Jan-2008 By Hamish Champ
Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) has confirmed the existence of a report which the brewer says backs its arbitration fight with Carlsberg over the...
04-Jan-2008
Pubco share prices plummeted yesterday in the wake of a 9.7% decline in beer volumes for November compared to last year. Shares in Punch Taverns...
Profits warnings, price wars, share collapses. Ah, it's coming up to Christmas
10-Dec-2007
Though not the first from the group this year, was last week's profit warning from Regent Inns the first thunderclap of a storm which threatens to...
'Kids allowed to buy cigarettes in pubs'
02-Dec-2007
Pub landlords let kids as young as 14 buy cigarettes from vending machines, a shock People investigation has discovered. Staff at the Black Horse in...
Punch denies £5bn approach for M&B
29-Nov-2007 By The PMA Team
Punch Taverns has denied that it is in talks regarding a £5bn takeover of rival Mitchells & Butlers (M&B). Media reports at the weekend...
Tim Clarke defends Mitchells & Butlers' record
29-Nov-2007 By Hamish Champ
Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) chief executive Tim Clarke defended the record of the group's senior management today, after announcing a new...
Carlsberg not ruling out hostile bid for S&N
15-Nov-2007 By Hamish Champ
The Carlsberg/Heineken consortium has not ruled out the possibility that it will launch a hostile bid for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N).It said...
Luminar unfazed by smoking ban
30-Oct-2007 By Hamish Champ
Dance venue operator Luminar has reported that the smoking ban has had a "marginal impact" on first half trading performance.Announcing its figures...
S&N blasts "unwelcome move
18-Oct-2007 By Hamish Champ
Consolidation fever has swept through the UK's brewing sector after European giants Carlsberg and Heineken confirmed they were launching a bid for...
No plans to tenant out Honeycombe pubs, says Cains
09-Sep-2007 By Hamish Champ
Liverpool brewer Cains has rejected claims it is to transfer over to tenanted operations the 100-plus managed Honeycombe Leisure pubs it acquired via...
Punch Taverns profits hit by bad weather
06-Sep-2007 By Hamish Champ
Shares in Punch Taverns soared this morning despite the group warning that its pre-tax profits for the year will be up to three per cent below...
THE AGENTS
06-Sep-2007
Adam Wyn Griffiths Director, Humberstones It's the beginning of September again, the summer seems to have passed us by this year, and children are...
Stock market jitters and the Mexican Wave
20-Aug-2007 By Hamish Champ
Fuelled by fears of a worldwide stock market meltdown, shares continued their rollercoaster ride in the City last week, so much so that at one point...
Critics question M&B's jv
09-Aug-2007 By The PMA Team
Management at Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) has come in for sharp criticism in the wake of the decision to put its joint-venture property...
Mitchells & Butlers halts R20 joint venture
02-Aug-2007 By Hamish Champ
Shares in Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) fell 30p this morning after the managed pub group announced it was putting its £4.5bn property joint...
The asset question: cash, equities or property?
29-Jul-2007 By Hamish Champ
What would you do with a billion quid? Sadly it's a conundrum the vast majority of us are unlikely to find ourselves grappling with. Yet Admiral...
Fuller's managed pubs see strong start
24-Jul-2007 By Hamish Champ
Fuller Smith & Turner told investors today at the group's AGM that invested like-for-like sales in its managed pubs increased by 5.4 per cent for...
A light in the black?
06-Jul-2007 By Hamish Champ
What a difference a results announcement can make to the listed pub sector. And what a pleasant change to see sentiment turn positive on the back of...
To list or not to list...
03-Jun-2007 By Hamish Champ
Why do companies seek a stock exchange listing? An obvious answer is to be able to throw a wider net to access funds. That, and affording investors a...
Booker to float with reverse takeover
14-May-2007
Cash & Carry group Booker is returning to the stock market via a reverse takeover deal with grocery wholesaler Blueheath.Subject to shareholder...
Bloom returns on AIM with ten-pub package for Equable
05-Apr-2007
Property entrepreneur Desmond Bloom has re-turned to the stock market with a new commercial property business that has acquired 10 pubs. Equable...
Shares in pub companies rally after earlier slump
15-Mar-2007 By Hamish Champ
Pub stocks bounced back this morning after heavy falls yesterday.Fresh concerns over the state of the US economy caused a shockwave in the London...
A market adjustment or the beginning of the end?
05-Mar-2007 By Hamish Champ
There's a saying that when America sneezes the rest of us catch a cold. When Alan Greenspan, former head of the Federal Reserve - the Yankee...
Senior figure who shoots from the hip
01-Mar-2007
It's not often you find a senior industry figure attacking a peer's management record. The scathing attack by Bob Senior this week on his successor...
