Private equity group CVC Capital Partners is one of several buyout firms assessing a takeover approach for Punch Taverns, which now has a market capitalisation of just under £700m after its share price plunged more than 70% during the past year.
CVC is known to have an appetite for pub assets after it was rumoured last year to be about to make a separate bid for M&B with Blackstone, the American investment firm.
Analysts have tipped Punch as a takeover target because 94% of its 8,400 pubs are freehold or held on long leases.
No approach has so far been made, and among the obstacles would be the more than £5bn worth of debt on Punch’s balance sheet.
The Sunday Telegraph 03/08/08 (Business) page 2
