CVC and Blackstone submit M&B proposal

CVC Capital Partners and Blackstone are thought to have submitted a joint proposal to acquire a 29.9% stake in the UK pub group Mitchells & Butlers.

According to a report in The Times, the joint bid by the private equity firms follows a similar offer from the buyout group Permira and Bain Capital is also thought to be considering a similar proposal.

The report goes on to add that M&B is expected to push the private equity groups to increase their offers after M&B presented a trading update yesterday for the 27 weeks to April 5 in which it said that it had managed to achieve “resilient sales growth and robust operating profits performance” along with like-for-like sales growth of 0.6%.