Last week, Slaughter and May client Whitbread began to auction off almost 3,000 leased and managed pubs for a figure believed to be close to £1.5bn.
The auction follows Whitbread’s decision earlier in the year to dispose of its brewing business to Interbrew, the Belgian brewing company. At the same time, Interbrew is acquiring the brewing division of Linklaters & Alliance’s client, Bass, for a reported £2.3bn. Both Whitbread and Bass have announced that they will focus on the leisure market in future.
