Inn Business, the tenanted pub chain led by former Whitbread restaurants chief Alan Jackson, today confirmed it had received a bid from rival Enterprise Inns.
The announcement followed a flat denial last week that Inn Business was in takeover talks.
No date has yet been set for further talks and possible prices had not been discussed, Jackson said.
The approach followed more than a year of speculation that Inn Business was set to be bought up by a rival looking to increase its tenanted estate.
Enterprise Inns, The Unique Pub Company and Japanese investment bank Nomura have all been named as possible candidates.
The group also gave a limited update on trading which said its performance was continuing in line with expectations. Pretax profits for the 1998 year have been pencilled in at £7.4m by house broker Peel Hunt.
Inn Business has nearly 500 tenanted pubs compared with Enterprise Inns 1,800.
EGi News 26/01/99
