Two obvious winners emerged from the long-running and bloody Wolverhampton & Dudley takeover saga, which finally concluded last week. W&D's financial advisers and new chief executive Ralph Findlay both deserve their hour of glory.
The advisers will quickly gain their reward. Cheques totally £10m are about to be written out. Findlay has the more dubious reward of having to steer W&D through the next phase of its still precarious progress.
The defeat of Pubmaster was by the narrowest of margins, and although winning is sweet, Findlay knows that 47% of his shareholders were ready to dump him and his team. He will have to tread carefully.
His first task will be to keep the company's promise to return £200m to shareholders. That means pressing ahead with the disposal programme, included the expected £67m sale of Pitcher & Piano.
Longer term he has to keep share price up above the 500p, if not the 513p
mark that Pubmaster offered, in order to ward off other potential predators,
such as Noble House's Robert Breare who has indicated that he might take another look at W&D next year.
Going hand in hand with both these, Findlay has to turn W&D into a modern progressive company and convince the City that is what he is doing. One of W&D's major problems has been that its has been seen as out-of-touch and out-of-date û one of the last brewing dinosaurs. It was lucky last week. It may not be again.
To do this Findlay must convince family head and former managing director David Thompson to slip into the shadows gracefully and with his dignity intact. Thompson is an man of integrity and passion, but appears to be of a by-gone era. He also got W&D into the mess in the first place with his takeover binge, buying up the likes of brewers Marstons and Mansfield, which added precious little to the group's fortunes.
Shareholder value is king now, and Findlay has the opportunity to enhance his own and his company's reputation. A few good sell-offs, a strategic alliance with Greene King, as is now being speculated, and then perhaps an exit negotiated on his terms?
What of Pubmaster and John Sands? Both will live to fight another day. Once Sands returns from his Florida vacation, expect an even more determined Pubmaster. Sands will have learned from this bruising experience.
He has the backing and the money. Small deals are already in the offing, but Pubmaster has suggested a major deal will be done before the end of the year. . Innspired and Avebury are obvious candidates and both seem to be fattening themselves up with purchases of their own.
Nomura will want to cash in on its now maturing investment in Unique Pub Co and some stage. Even Punch Pub Co, where chairman Hugh Osmond and main investors Texas Pacific may also want a quick return.
For both Sands and Findlay the next few months will be all about confidence - both their own and their backers in them.
The advisers will quickly gain their reward. Cheques totally £10m are about to be written out. Findlay has the more dubious reward of having to steer W&D through the next phase of its still precarious progress.
The defeat of Pubmaster was by the narrowest of margins, and although winning is sweet, Findlay knows that 47% of his shareholders were ready to dump him and his team. He will have to tread carefully.
His first task will be to keep the company's promise to return £200m to shareholders. That means pressing ahead with the disposal programme, included the expected £67m sale of Pitcher & Piano.
Longer term he has to keep share price up above the 500p, if not the 513p
mark that Pubmaster offered, in order to ward off other potential predators,
such as Noble House's Robert Breare who has indicated that he might take another look at W&D next year.
Going hand in hand with both these, Findlay has to turn W&D into a modern progressive company and convince the City that is what he is doing. One of W&D's major problems has been that its has been seen as out-of-touch and out-of-date û one of the last brewing dinosaurs. It was lucky last week. It may not be again.
To do this Findlay must convince family head and former managing director David Thompson to slip into the shadows gracefully and with his dignity intact. Thompson is an man of integrity and passion, but appears to be of a by-gone era. He also got W&D into the mess in the first place with his takeover binge, buying up the likes of brewers Marstons and Mansfield, which added precious little to the group's fortunes.
Shareholder value is king now, and Findlay has the opportunity to enhance his own and his company's reputation. A few good sell-offs, a strategic alliance with Greene King, as is now being speculated, and then perhaps an exit negotiated on his terms?
What of Pubmaster and John Sands? Both will live to fight another day. Once Sands returns from his Florida vacation, expect an even more determined Pubmaster. Sands will have learned from this bruising experience.
He has the backing and the money. Small deals are already in the offing, but Pubmaster has suggested a major deal will be done before the end of the year. . Innspired and Avebury are obvious candidates and both seem to be fattening themselves up with purchases of their own.
Nomura will want to cash in on its now maturing investment in Unique Pub Co and some stage. Even Punch Pub Co, where chairman Hugh Osmond and main investors Texas Pacific may also want a quick return.
For both Sands and Findlay the next few months will be all about confidence - both their own and their backers in them.
