Mr Punch's pub crawl

THERE is very little saloon bar gossip about Giles Thorley. In fact, it is hard to find anyone with a bad word for the new chairman of Punch Pub Company.

'Extremely sharp' and 'very talented' are typical opinions from former colleagues and rival pub bosses on the man often described as legendary financier Guy Hands' 'most able lieutenant'.

Now, at only 34, he is on the verge of taking Punch to the stock market in what could be one of the year's biggest flotations. Clearly, Thorley has come a long way in a short time. He originally headed for a different kind of bar, qualifying as a barrister before joining the graduate training scheme at Nomura. The Japanese investment bank was shaken up by the arrival in 1994 of Guy Hands who set up Principal Finance Group (PFG) under the Nomura umbrella.

Thorley recalls: 'We started looking at pubs almost immediately. The first big deal was buying Phoenix Inns in 1995 and I went to Phoenix as property director in charge of reorganising the business.'

After selling half the estate, Thorley returned to PFG and set out on a frenzy of deal-making, snapping up the Inntrepreneur pub chain in a mere two weeks, selling the remaining Phoenix pubs at a hefty profit to another pub entrepreneur, Hugh Osmond, refinancing Inntrepreneur, selling pubs to Scottish & Newcastle, and, in 1997, unsuccessfully bidding for the Bass estate. That went to Osmond, forming Punch Taverns.

Thorley remembers that time as a golden age. 'Those were the days,' he says. 'We were young - I wouldn't say wild, but it was the stormy phase of PFG and everyone was like that. There were 70 of us chasing after deals. We did a lot of them. And as far as I'm aware, we never had an unprofitable one.'

Thorley attributes PFG's success to financial planning. 'We didn't dwell on the business strategy, but if you got the numbers right, it would deliver.'

While Thorley was on holiday in Italy in 1998, Hands rang at 6am with the offer of running Inntrepreneur. He accepted and Unique Pub Company was created, with Thorley in charge of restructuring the business.

A nationwide pub crawl followed. Thorley recalls: 'I've visited about 2,000 pubs in the past few years, and there are whole sections of the country I remember only through the pubs.' As well as taking the company from 2,600 to 3,200 pubs, he raised

£1.15 billion for Unique, effectively remortgaging the estate. But he stayed in touch with Osmond. Last year, the call came to join Punch, stepping into Osmond's shoes to handle the flotation of the company.

Thorley says: 'When Hugh rang, Guy had just announced a review of all the pub businesses and his impending departure from Nomura, and it was uncertain what was going to happen. I had the choice to stay or take an opportunity at Punch that would not be there for long.'

Rumours of a fall-out between Thorley and Hands are strongly denied. 'I regard him as a mentor and discussed my options with him,' Thorley says. 'But I felt ideally suited to Punch.'

Thorley left with a rumoured £6 million performance bonus and joined his former rival Osmond at Punch.

The chance of working with Osmond had some appeal. 'I bought a company from under his nose, then I sold him a company, then he bought a company from under our noses. We decided that was enough competition,' he says of the man who once threw a mobile phone at him during a tense deal.

Now the pair go pheasantshooting together and talk every other week. 'Hugh will rant and rave about some idea he's had and I may or may not take notice,' he says. 'We know where we stand, so we don't fall out.'

Thorley is overseeing the split between the leased and managed businesses, with separate boards, management teams and identities. Punch Retail is planning to unveil its new name this week - 'It is not Judy,' he says.

And what about a flotation of Punch? 'I don't honestly know if we'll be able to do it by the end of March,' he says. 'It all depends on when the split is.

'But there is a lot of interest in it. Last year was virtually the lowest for IPOs (initial public offerings) and everyone's looking to see if market sentiment has changed. If it's an opportune time, great. If not, we go on.'

And the deciding factors? 'Well, we're taking a bit of interest in Enterprise Inns' share price,' he says. 'It is the nearest similar quoted company to Punch, so it's a good yardstick.'

Acquisitions are also on the agenda. 'There are still plenty of pubs to buy,' he says. 'It is just a question of finding the right ones. That's partly why I'm being coy about an IPO date - the last thing we want to do is to take ourselves out of the market.' Punch was linked with the Laurel Pub Company recently, which Thorley dismisses as 'smoke but little fire'.

Outside Punch, Thorley is part of the British Beer and Pub Association. he campaign for full pints? 'It's utterly ridiculous - customers don't want it,' he says. 'The Government has had only 10 complaints since 1984 on the issue.' The euro? 'I'm against, but for it in Europe,' he says. Licensing reform? 'We're a mature nation that deserves more flexible drinking hours'.

However, his main passion is, simply, for pubs themselves. 'I'm a very strong supporter of the great British pub and want to get people going back there,' he enthuses. 'They go - it's just that they don't go enough.'