| ||
| ||
| ||
| ||
 |
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Six rejects $4.4bn pubs offer
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Six Continents Plc, the world's biggest international hotelier, said on Thursday it had rejected a 2.8 billion pound ($4.42 billion) cash offer for its UK pubs unit weeks after fighting off a hostile bid for the whole group. The company did not say who made the offer for its Mitchells & Butlers business, which runs All Bar One and O'Neills pubs, only that it was a financial buyer. Industry sources said the bidder seemed certain to be private equity player BC Partners. The approach was assessed by a newly-appointed board committee led by senior non-executive Roger Carr and rejected as not high enough. Analysts valued the group at up to three billion pounds on a stand alone basis, before any control premium. Six Continents said it had seen a number of venture capitalists expressing interest in the pubs division, but this proposal was not ``sufficiently attractive and therefore cannot be recommended to shareholders.'' Several other private equity groups have looked at the unit, including the Laurel Pub Company, owned by Deutsche Bank AG's Morgan Grenfell Private Equity, CVC and former Nomura financier Guy Hands, industry sources said. Six Continents shares were trading 0.6 percent up at 625-1/2 pence by 1035 GMT, after hitting a session high of 628p on hopes of higher bids for the pubs business. The company saw off a hostile bid by leisure entrepreneur Hugh Osmond early this month, opting instead for demerging its Holiday Inn and InterContinental hotels and Mitchells & Butlers. Under the demerger plans, unveiled in October, the hotels division is to be called InterContinental Hotels and Six Continents expects to list both divisions separately on April 15. Osmond said at the time of the bid that he was unlikely to come back for the pubs business, and industry sources added that Osmond was not behind the latest bid. Six Continents created its "independent'' committee, made up of three directors, to assess any bids, in response to Osmond's remarks that the company was not very receptive to any offers. Many analysts believe an effective auction process is underway for both the pubs and hotels business, with private equity players Blackstone Group and Texas Pacific together with Marriott and Sheraton group Starwood looking at the hotels side. "There seems little reason for Six Continents to accept a bid for either division before they test the water with their listings next month and get a true valuation,'' said one UK fund manager with shares in Six Continents. Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
