Fuller's £54m offer ‘substantially undervalued' Capital

Capital Pub Company rejected a £54m offer from Fuller's for the business because it "substantially undervalued the business and its prospects".

Fuller's revealed earlier this morning that it had made an offer of 175p per share for Capital in March, followed by an increased offer of 200p per share offer in April which valued the business at £53.9m. It said it was "disappointed" Capital had declined to negotiate.

But in a statement Capital said: "The Capital Board, with its advisers, considered both the indicative offers of 175p and then the rapidly increased offer of 200p per share and unanimously decided that even the higher indicative offer substantially undervalued the business and its prospects. Therefore it was considered to be without merit, rejected and deemed inappropriate to engage further with Fuller's on these proposals."

Capital has 34 pubs in London, and claimed to have delivered sales growth of 24% in the current year. It has plans to grow to 45-50 sites in the next two years.

Its final results for the year ending 26 March 2011 are due out on Tuesday next week.

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By Neil Gerrard

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