Telegraph.co.uk – Marshall Wace, one of the City’s biggest hedge funds, is to continue pressing for a combination of the managed pubs businesses of Punch Taverns and Mitchells & Butlers despite last week’s withdrawal of a proposal to merge the two.
Marshall Wace is understood to have trimmed its 6 per cent shareholding in Punch, which has a portfolio of nearly 8,500 pubs, and increased its stake in M&B on Friday, according to people familiar with the hedge fund. The changes to its shareholdings are likely to be revealed in Stock Exchange announcements by both pub companies tomorrow.
