Punch Bunch Hunch

Murmurings in the world of finance over a £3bn deal for pub company, Spirit Group, by rival operator Punch Taverns began last month, though at the time of writing nothing has been officially confirmed.

It was the FT that sparked the story, reporting that Punch Taverns, Britain’s second biggest pub group, had made an unsolicited approach early in June, though talks were then still at an early stage and an offer was not inevitable.

The deal would reunite the two arms of the original Punch Tavern group, which were separated into two divisions, namely tenanted (Punch) and managed pubs (Spirit), in 1999. It is thought that Giles Thorely, chief executive of Punch Taverns, is interested in converting 1,200 of Spirit’s managed pubs to tenanted ones and selling the remaining 800. This would give Punch comparable scale to Enterprise Inns, currently Britain’s biggest pub landlord.

Turn to City Comment on page 76 for further analysis of consolidation in the pub sector.