Punch in debt for equity call

A TRADE union has urged Punch Taverns' new chief executive Ian Dyson to start talks with bondholders to convert some of the company's £3.5 billion debt mountain into equity.

GMB argues this would help create a "more viable" pubs business, and comes ahead of Dyson's strategic review of Punch due to be unveiled in January and the day after the group revealed finance director Phil Dutton was quitting.

The union said an independent study showed debts averaged 534,901 per pub and interest payments and other costs amounted to an average 271 daily per pub, payable whether it is trading profitably or not.

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