Joe Lewis, the activist shareholder engaged in a battle with the board of Mitchells & Butlers, has called on the pub company to throw out its banks advisers, focus on driving profits and increase disclosure.
Richard McGuire, who speaks for Lewis through investment vehicle Piedmont, issued the demands ahead of what is expected to be an explosive annual meeting at M&B this week.
The Piedmont representative – who was ejected from M&B's board in December – also revealed that a strategic review commissioned in the wake of the pub company's failed attempt to set up a property joint venture in 2008 cost the company £13m . A failure to close out hedges linked to the venture led to two years of losses and cost former chief executive Tim Clarke and ex-finance director Karim Naffah their jobs.
M&B has never published the review nor disclosed the cost.
McGuire said at the weekend: “The real issue is about being more bottom-line focused. Everything is about top-line revenues.
"Last year revenues were up 2.6% but pre-tax profits were down 23.9%. Over the past five years - excluding the impact of the swaps - revenues are up 26% and pre-tax profits are down by 27%. As a shareholder, that divergence is concerning."
McGuire also called into question the "motivations and judgment" of Adam Fowle, M&B's chief executive, in the wake of the shareholder row and suggested the pub boss would be under pressure to perform in the coming months.
Lewis, the British billionaire who famously lost about $1bn (£620m) following the collapse of US investment bank Bear Stearns, owns a 23% stake in M&B and has called on Simon Laffin, the pub group's chairman, to stand down.
The activist shareholder will this week use the AGM to propose a slate of four new directors at the pub group including John Lovering, the Debenhams chairman, and Simon Burke, the former Hamleys boss.
Piedmont could win support from 17.5% stakeholder Elpida, the investment vehicle of Irish horseracing tycoon JP McManus and John Magnier, as well as non-ABI affiliated investors holding as much as 15% of the shares.
ABI members – who hold more than 20% of M&B's stock – are expected to support the current board, while it remains unclear how the estimated 60,000 small shareholders at M&B will vote.
Separately it was also revealed at the weekend that Laffin has had his offices and home swept for bugs, in the increasingly bitter row about the future of M&B.
He said: “This could be a John Grisham novel. It has got billionaire tax exiles, faraway places, horseracing connections and a glamorous location. And those forces are ranged against me and a plucky board in Birmingham.”
