W&D fights off hostile £485m Pubmaster bid

One of the longest takeover battles in recent corporate history came to an end this week.

At 1pm on Monday, Wolverhampton & Dudley (W&D) shareholders ended 14 months of uncertainty and voted in favour of keeping Britain's biggest regional brewer independent.

Pub group Pubmaster failed in its hostile £485m takeover bid for the brewer after receiving the support of only 47% of W&D shareholders. It needed the support of more than 50%.

A spokesman for Pubmaster said the company was "naturally disappointed" at the vote but respected the views of the shareholders. "This is far from the end of the world for the company," he said, adding that Pubmaster would continue to look at other opportunities as they arose.

David Thompson, chairman of W&D, said: "We are delighted that the majority of our shareholders have rejected Pubmaster's offer and have backed management in its plans for the business.

"Over the last few months, we have set out clear objectives for the development of W&D and we are happy to be judged on our achievement of these.

"Now the uncertainty created by the 12-month offer period has ended, we look forward to concentrating on our main task of delivering shareholder value."

Pubmaster launched its bid for W&D on 1 June last year following a period of underperformance by W&D shares.

W&D, which owns almost 2,000 pubs, asked shareholders to reject Pubmaster's 513p-a-share bid, saying it would return £100m to them by the end of this year, followed by the same amount again by April 2003.

by Samantha McClary