M&B rejects bid from Joe Lewis’s Piedmont

BILLIONAIRE financier Joe Lewis’s Piedmont group has made a takeover approach to pubs and restaurants company Mitchells & Butlers, where it already sits on a near‑23 per cent stake.

Piedmont confirmed after the stock market had closed yesterday that it had presented a proposal to the pub group’s board regarding a possible unspecified cash offer for the company, with a partial share alternative.

Piedmont said M&B’s board had rejected the offer, and Lewis was now considering making a further offer proposal at 230p per share.

This was 6.3 per cent above yesterday’s opening price of M&B’s shares, but the stock closed the day up 7 per cent at 235.6p, ahead of the price on the table.

“There can be no certainty at this stage as to whether an offer will be made or as to the timing of any offer,” Piedmont said.

It is the latest twist in a tumultuous couple of years for M&B. Lewis forced through major management change at the pub group in January 2010, ousting directors including chairman Simon Laffin.

However, last March M&B revealed chief executive Adam Fowle was leaving the company, and chairman Simon Burke stepped down last July, having only taken up the role in February. M&B, whose brands include All Bar One and O’Neill’s, has now gone through six chairmen in two years. Former Scottish & Newcastle director Jeremy Blood is acting chief executive.