Greene King in bid for Belhaven

Acquisition-hungry pub group Greene King has offered £187m for Scotland's largest managed and tenanted pub company, Belhaven.

Greene King is undertaking a £47m share placing through Deutsche Bank to fund the deal.

Stuart Ross, chief executive of Belhaven, had denied the company was in talks with Greene King when rumours of a deal surfaced earlier this year.

But the Scottish pub company's sparkling full-year performance to June, which saw full-year turnover jump by 20.5% to £114.44m, seems to have been too tempting for Greene King.

Ross said: "Today's cash offer reflects the quality of our business and our board unanimously recommends that it is in the best interest of shareholders."

Greene King purchased regional brewer Ridley's in July for £45.6m and said the integration of the businesses was going well.

Like-for-like sales at Greene King's managed pub company increased by 1.2% in the 12 weeks to 24 July 2005 and by 3.6% at its tenanted division, Pub Partners.