New round in on-off pubs sales

THE tussle over the future of Laurel Pub Company has taken a new twist with news that fresh merger talks with Pubmaster were abandoned after just two days.

Pubmaster has held on-off negotiations for more than two months to buy Laurel's 1,871 leased pubs, valued at £800m.

Laurel's owner, Deutsche Bank, re-started negotiations with Pubmaster on Monday. But on Wednesday the talks were off as Inn Partnership's chain of 1,250 pubs, owned by Japanese invest-ment bank Nomura, was put up for sale.

One confused observer said: 'It is not clear what Laurel is doing. Is it a seller or a buyer? There appears to be an internal division.' Punch Group has also been lined up as a possible merger partner with Laurel.

Laurel chief executive Ian Payne, thought to be against a sale, angered Punch and Pubmaster two weeks ago by apologising to employees 'for being publicly associated with second division companies'.

Investment bank Schroder Salomon Smith Barney is approaching major industry players over the Inn Partnership sale. It is thought unlikely that a £500m asking price will be reached.