£402m Punch Taverns’ acquisition set to go ahead
The £402m acquisition of Staffordshire pubco, Punch Taverns, remains on track the special purpose bidder has said.
Heineken and Patron Capital, using newco Vine Acquisitions as a bidding vehicle, have agreed a deal with Burton-upon-Trent-based Punch to acquire the entire and to be issued share capital of the company for 180p per share – a deal which values the business at £402.7m.
Immediately on completion of the deal, Heineken will acquire from Patron a portfolio of around 1,900 Punch pubs with Patron retaining an additional 1,329 which it will run itself.
Vine Acquisitions said today that it had so far acquired an aggregate of 63,310,488 ordinary shares in Punch, representing in aggregate approximately 28.5% of the existing ordinary share capital.
However, the offer has already received the support of Punch’s top three shareholders – Glenview Capital, Avenue Capital and Warwick Capital Partners – and of the directors of Punch, who together represent 52.3% of the existing issued ordinary share capital of Punch.
The offer is expected to be formally ratified at a general meeting of Punch shareholders on Friday (February 10).
Rival bidder for Punch, Emerald Investment Partners, set up by former Punch finance director Alan McIntosh in 2012, announced on February 1 it had withdrawn its interest in the acquisition.
Vine and Heineken have issued documents outlining how the share buying agreement will proceed, while a £120m share purchase loan sets out the terms by which the Dutch brewer will fund the share purchases.
