It’s all happening in the pubs world this week, with Enterprise Inns (LON:ETI) announcing plans to offload another 1,000 pubs.
The pubs owner expects to reduce the size of its estate to 4,200 by 2020, compared to about 5,200 now.
Of these, between 750 and 850 will be managed pubs with the number of pubs held in its commercial property arm will rise to between 900 and 1,000 properties from 185 now, in response to new legislation that will free “tied” tenants from the obligation to buy beer at a higher price than the brewer would charge to a free house down the road.
The news follows yesterday’s intervention by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in Greene King’s (LON:GNK) agreed takeover of Spirit Pub Company (LON:SPRT).
The CMA is looking for various undertakings to be offered by Greene King, otherwise the bid will be the subject of an in-depth investigation that will, at best, delay the takeover and possibly scupper it altogether.
While Enterprise Inns is looking to reduce the size of its estate, Greene King is looking to increase it from about 1,900 outlets, which include a few restaurants and hotels.
“We are confident we will be able to offer suitable undertakings, which will keep the number of pubs we need to sell to a minimum and allow the acquisition to complete before the end of June," Greene King’s chief executive officer, Rooney Anand, said yesterday.
Low-cost airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) is getting a bit of a buffeting in the market this morning after declaring an almost unprecedented first-half profit; of course, the profit is not the element of this morning’s trading statement that is causing the reaction – it’s the warning about the effects of the French air traffic controllers strike that is causing unrest.
Foreign exchange movements have not helped the airline either, while the recovery in the oil price could make future hedging arrangements more costly.
Small caps making waves this morning include Edenville Energy and Tribal Energy.
Edenville Energy (LON:EDL) is embarking on the next stage of its exploration programme, which is expected to better delineate the coal resource at its Rukwa coal project. The company also announced it is terminating its standby equity distribution agreement with Darwin Strategic.
Tribal’s (LON:TRB) share price has been clobbered after chief executive Keith Evans announced his intention to quit the software firm at the end of June.