Punch to hold back on £2bn float

THE Punch Pub Company will delay its flotation until the autumn if it wins its £2bn-plus bid for Japanese bank Nomura's Unique and Voyager pub companies.

Even if rival bidder Enterprise Inns beats it to buy Nomura's pubs, Punch, founded by Hugh Osmond, would still not take the company to the market until June or July, say company sources.

The City had been expecting a float by the end of this month. The delay could have a huge knock-on effect for the rest of the pubs industry, which had been looking to Punch's planned £2bn flotation as a test of the market's attitude towards the leisure sector.

A leading corporate financier said: 'If Punch was to win the Nomura estates and integrate them, it would have to put back the float by months, and this would have a huge effect on the market for initial public offerings. The IPO pipeline has been fairly dry lately. Everyone is desperate to see one successful float happen, and was looking to Punch to show the way.'

Many companies regarded a flotation by Punch as a key indicator before raising funds themselves, either by going for a stock market listing or by remortgaging their estates.

Businesses looking to raise money include Laurel Pub Company, owned by Deutsche Bank Capital Partners, and Pubmaster, which bought Nomura's Inn Partnership pub company last month for £523m. Six Continents is also thought to be looking at demerging its 2,000-strong managed pubs estate, either by a trade sale or a float. But an adviser said: 'It is waiting for someone else to float first before it makes a move.'