Whitbread CEO says pubs business not for sale
LONDON, June 17 (Reuters) - Whitbread Plc's (WTB.L) Chief Executive Alan Parker has ruled out a sale of the group's pub restaurants business, which includes the Beefeater, Brewer's Fayre and Table Table chains.
"I'm not looking to sell any pub restaurants at the moment. Our joint sites with our pub restaurants and our hotels are not for sale," Parker told reporters on a conference call.
Last month, Mitchells and Butlers Plc (MAB.L), the owner of Harvester and All Bar One, expressed an interest in acquiring the business.
However, Parker said the group plans to keep the pubs and develop them alongside its Premier Inns, picking up on income from residents at the hotels.
"The core of Whitbread is the joint sites between our pub restaurants and Premier Inns. Our joint sites are definitely not for sale and that's always going to be the case," he said.
Whitbread sold its pubs which could not be developed alongside a Premier Inn hotel to Mitchells & Butlers in a 500 million pounds ($975.4 million) deal in 2006.
Parker ruled out converting the pubs estate into a low-tax Real Estate Investment Trust despite reportedly coming under pressure to do so from shareholders Robert Tchenguiz and Asif Aziz.
He also said Whitbread is committed to keeping Costa Coffee in the group and would not consider a demerger of the chain. (Reporting by Matthew Scuffham, Editing by Mark Potter)
