British hotels and leisure firm Whitbread today wrapped up the sale of its 3,000-strong pub estate for £1.625 billion sterling (euro 2.4 billion) and said it would return 75 per cent of the proceeds to its shareholders.
Deutsche Morgan Grenfell clinched the deal having fought off a challenge from three other bidders - Punch, Nomura and Candover/Pubmaster - which had all bid around £1.5 billion sterling.
The group's shareholders will receive 230p per share in cash or around £1.13 billion sterling of the proceeds. Whitbread said it will will now focus on high-growth areas of the British leisure market.
The company's main brands now include Marriott four-star hotels, Beefeater, Pizza Hut restaurants and David Lloyds active leisure outlets.
Shares in Whitbread, which have outperformed the leisure, entertainment and hotels sector by around 32 per cent over the past year, were unchanged at £6.00 in London this morning.