AN entrepreneur is planning to gatecrash Whitbread's talks to buy 3,600 pubs from Allied Domecq by launching a rival deal worth more than £3 billion.
The former PizzaExpress head Hugh Osmond said he would be prepared to stump up the cash to trump an offer currently being worked on by the Whitbread and Allied teams.
If Whitbread did buy the pubs from Allied it would mean its brewing arm, which employs more than 500 at Samlesbury, would probably have to be sold.
Mr Osmond's Punch Taverns group approached Allied several weeks ago and said it was keen to bid for its pubs and other retail outlets, including the Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robbins food chains.
Allied rejected the talks, only to announce last week that it was negotiating a sale of the pubs part of the business to Whitbread at a reported figure of around £2.3 billion in shares.
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