Industry experts have been predicting potential deals in the sector as long-sighted investors look through the current crisis of lockdowns to bet on improved markets in the future.
Former Greene King chief Rooney Anand this month raised £200 million to invest in buying up pubs with private equity backing.
As a fellow long-term rival to Findlay - Anand was CEO of Greene King for 14 years - the pair are well acquainted.
As well as buying up smaller brewers, Findlay last year struck a deal with Carlsberg’s UK arm to form a £780 million joint venture, putting its brewing business in with Carlsberg’s.
It is not clear how a private equity takeover would work with that JV, in which Marston’s holds a 40% stake.
Marston’s beers include Banks’s, Hobgoblin and Marston’s Pedigree.
Its shares today leaped 16%, by 12p to 87p.
Findlay has been one of the more high profile figures in the industry calling for more help for pub companies from the government as they face a wave of closures due to Covid lockdowns.
