The US private equity firm targeting a potential takeover of pub group Marston's said it has now walked away from a deal.
Shares in Marston's tumbled on Thursday morning after Platinum Equity Advisors said it will not make a firm offer after its 105p per share offer was rebuffed.
Last week, Marston's said it believed that the £666 million bid "significantly undervalues" the pub and brewing business.
Platinum had previously approached the Wolverhampton-based firm with 88p and 95p per share offers in December.
It comes as all of Marston's 1,368 pubs remain shut to customers due to the national coronavirus lockdown.
READ MORE: Scottish National Investment Bank ‘should fund’ revival of Covid-ravaged high streets
On Thursday, Marston's said it believes it is "well placed" to benefit from potential growth opportunities after coronavirus restrictions are relaxed.
It told investors that it hopes to be buoyed by the increase in home-working, which will benefit pubs in suburban locations.
It added that it also expects to benefit from the acquisition of 156 Brains pubs in Wales it completed in December.
In a statement, the company said: "Marston's has a strengthened balance sheet following the creation of the synergistic joint venture with Carlsberg and significant cash headroom, enabling it to continue to absorb the impact of the temporary Government restrictions.
"We welcome the continued nationwide rollout of the vaccine programme and look forward to rebuilding trading momentum once restrictions are lifted."
During a challenging year, the business merged its brewing arm with Carlsberg UK, forming a joint venture worth around £780 million. Marston's has a 40% stake in the business.
Shares in the company were 12.8% lower at 86.8p in early trading.
R&A plan for new golf facility in Glasgow
Plans for a new community golf complex at one of five municipal courses under threat of closure in Glasgow have been put forward by game governing body The R&A.
Major investment in hotel in world-famous Scottish glen
Crerar Hotel Group is investing more than £500,000 in a Highland hotel, as it aims to capitalise on a boost to tourism once travel restrictions are lifted.
Sign up
You can now have the bulletin and the top business news stories sent direct to your email inbox twice-daily, and Business Week for the weekly round-up on Sunday:
https://www.heraldscotland.com/my/account/register/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel