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’Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Mitchells & Butlers says Piedmont’s 230p a share offer significantly undervalues company — statement.
- Cairn Energy announces further disappointing results from Greenland drilling campaign — statement.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Wednesday,
- LSE trading up in H1 but slowed in Q2 – statement.
- H&M Q3 profit rises 23 per cent as economy improves – statement.
- Tim Jones, currently group finance director at Interserve,
A grandee speaks up for Little England
To the Said Business School, Oxford, to hear departing Cadbury chairman Roger Carr talk about hostile takeover bids – a timely address, given the Kraft deal…
Carr, we can report, had clearly topped up on the theobromine ahead of his speech.
Boardroom row escalates at M&B
The boardroom row at UK pub operator Mitchells & Butlers escalated on Tuesday when M&B appointed a chairman over opposition from Joe Lewis, its biggest shareholder with a 23% stake, and called on both his board representatives to quit.
Salad bar brawl at M&B
The coleslaw and kidney beans are starting to fly at the owner of the Harvester restaurant chain.
On Monday morning, Mitchells & Butlers, which owns All Bar One and Toby Carvery, decided to go public and bring to the attention of shareholders the recent manoeuvrings of Piedmont Inc.,
M&B chief quits over losses
Mitchells & Butlers is battling to regain investor confidence after the UK pub operator announced the departure of its long-serving chief executive following further losses over an abortive property deal two years ago.
Drink and financial wizardry don’t mix
Further evidence, as if any were needed.
From Thursday’s half year results statement from Mitchells & Butlers, owner of the All Bar One and Harvester chains:
Since the half year end the long term interest rate swap held against the medium term borrowings has been settled at a net cash cost of £69m post tax.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Xstrata announces £4.1bn rights issue – FT story, Xstrata statement, Xstrata results
- Cookson Group announces £240m rights issue – statement
- Nationwide reports 16.6% year on year fall in UK house prices – statement (pdf).
Snap news
The latest on Wednesday,
- Woolworths – still in discussions – statement
- Corporate results: Britvic, Finsbury Food, De La Rue, French Connection, Johnson Matthey, Mitchells & Butlers, United Utilities,
UK’s Tchenguiz loses £1bn on stake sale
Robert Tchenguiz, the UK-based property entrepreneur, lost £1bn in just 24 hours after being forced to offload his stakes in J Sainsbury and Mitchells & Butlers as the fallout of the Icelandic banking crisis hit corporate UK.
UK’s Tchenguiz hit by Iceland woes
UK-based property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz has sold his 25% stake in UK pub group Mitchells & Butlers, illustrating how the financial crisis in Iceland is hitting UK companies. Some 101m shares in the group changed hands on Tuesday night after the formal close of business in London at 130p apiece,
The Tchenguiz positions are being liquidated
Who said this emergency was just about banks?
Pubs appeared to be have been forced into the toxic mix on Tuesday night as a huge line of Mitchells & Butlers was suddenly on the move. Some 90m shares in the All Bar One operator changed hands after the formal close of business in London at 130p apiece.
Tchenguiz takes on M&B short-sellers
Property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz on Thursday moved against short-sellers in UK pub group Mitchells & Butlers, converting a derivatives holding of almost 26% into shares in order to stop it being lent to those betting on price falls.
Snap news
The latest on Friday,
- Mitchells & Butlers said it is not in talks about an offer for the company, but is continuting discussion with private equity investors about a stake sale of up to 29.9 per cent – statement.
UK’s Punch cuts contact with M&B
The board of Mitchells & Butlers is set to come under renewed shareholder pressure after UK pub operator Punch Taverns abruptly ended all contacts with its rival. The move comes after weeks of potential merger offers and counter-proposals from the two pub groups that have become increasingly hostile in their dealings with each other.
Punch under pressure to sell Spirit
Punch Taverns is facing pressure from a leading investor to sell Spirit, its managed pub estate, to rival pub operator Mitchells & Butlers in a deal worth a possible £1.8bn or more, reports the FT. QVT Financial,
Buy-out groups close in on M&B
Buy-out groups CVC and Blackstone have submitted a joint proposal to acquire 29.9% of Mitchells & Butlers, the troubled UK pub group whose shares have tumbled after a property deal backfired, reports The Times.
Buy-out groups to declare on M&B
Mitchells & Butlers will discover Friday which private equity groups, if any, are willing to take up its offer of partial stakes in the UK pubs group, having all but given up on the prospect of an outright cash offer.
UK’s Punch in talks on joint M&B bid
Punch Taverns could still team up with a private equity partner to make a joint bid for rival pub group Mitchells & Butlers, despite having launched its own offer for the rival pub operator. Informal discussions have taken place between Punch and a number of other interested parties,
M&B suitors discuss gag deal
Prospective bidders for Mitchells & Butlers, the UK pub and restaurant operator, are negotiating over confidentiality agreements, which will stipulate whether they will be allowed to launch joint bids for the company.
Stub equity buyout plan for Mitchells & Butlers, reportedly
The list of suitors for All Bar One operator Mitchells & Butlers – real or imagined – gets ever longer.
Punch Taverns has made no secret of its takeover ambitions, Robert Tchenguiz still has 23 per cent after the failure of his property joint venture with M&B,
UK’s Punch slugs it out in M&B battle
Punch Taverns’ offer to merge with Mitchells & Butlers to create the UK’s largest pub operator, with more than 10,000 pubs, received a cool response from inside the rival company, as shareholders and advisers prepared for a drawn-out battle.
UK’s Punch launches bid for M&B
British pub operator Punch Taverns has approached Mitchells & Butlers with an all-share offer that would create the UK’s biggest pub group with more than 10,000 outlets and a combined value of more than £9bn,
M&B heads for Punch-Tchenguiz battle
The future of UK pub group Mitchells & Butlers could be come down to a bid battle between Punch Taverns and a private equity group backed by Robert Tchenguiz, with the UK property entrepreneur preparing to take his stake in M&B to 29.9%.
M&B surges on bid interest
UK pub group Mitchells & Butlers revealed Wednesday it had received approaches from “a number of parties” after it announced a strategic review in light of its £391m pre-tax loss from a closed hedging position.
M&B hedging disaster angers shareholders
Shareholders criticised Mitchells & Butlers’ management on Tuesday after the UK pub group’s decision to close disastrous hedges at a post-tax cost of £274m. As the 2,000-pub chain announced a strategic review and the departure of finance director Karim Naffah,
M&B capitulates, but Tchenguiz somehow fights on
On Monday UK property investor Robert Tchenguiz upped his stake in Mitchells & Butlers by 3 per cent to 22 per cent, spending about £46m in the process. On Tuesday the pubs operator revealed a highly embarrassing £274m post-tax loss related to the closing out of hedges put in place as part of an abortive JV last summer with the very same property entrepreneur.
Mitchells & Butler comes round to Plan B
Having seen its earlier attempts at unlocking the supposedly hidden value in its property portfolio well and truly crunched in the summer, pub operator Mitchells & Butlers on Thursday confirmed it is looking at Plan B – use a real estate investment trust.
Punch squashes M&B rumours
Prospects for a £5 billion-plus bid for Mitchells & Butlers were quashed last night by a statement from prospective bidder Punch, reports the Times. Punch said it was not in talks or even sounding out M&B shareholders.