Heineken refreshes Punch

The brewer has brought relief to Punch’s “long-suffering” investors, but competition concerns remain, says Ben Judge.

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Heineken: Britain's third largest pub landlord

Dutch brewer Heineken and London-based real-estate investment firm Patron Capital have agreed a joint £400m takeover bid for Punch Taverns, Britain's second-biggest pubs group. Punch, which made a £60m pre-tax profit in its last financial year, has been struggling under a huge debt load. It has almost halved this over the past three years by selling property and rejigging its pub leases, but still owed £1.36bn in August this year. The offer of 180p a share represents a 40% premium on the closing share price the day before the offer was made.

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Ben Judge

Ben studied modern languages at London University's Queen Mary College. After dabbling unhappily in local government finance for a while, he went to work for The Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh. The launch of the paper's website, scotsman.com, in the early years of the dotcom craze, saw Ben move online to manage the Business and Motors channels before becoming deputy editor with responsibility for all aspects of online production for The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News websites, along with the papers' Edinburgh Festivals website.

Ben joined MoneyWeek as website editor in 2008, just as the Great Financial Crisis was brewing. He has written extensively for the website and magazine, with a particular emphasis on alternative finance and fintech, including blockchain and bitcoin. 

As an early adopter of bitcoin, Ben bought when the price was under $200, but went on to spend it all on foolish fripperies.