Greene King raises offer for Spirit Pub Company

Greene King has raised its takeover offer for Spirit Pub Company, whose board says it will accept the bid if other terms can be worked out.

The new offer values Spirit at 109.5p per share, up from an original offer of 100p that was rejected last month.

Spirit, which was split off from Punch Taverns in 2011, runs the Chef & Brewer and Flaming Grill chains.

Spirit says it will recommend the offer to shareholders if other terms of the deal can be agreed.

Suffolk-based Greene King runs 1,900 pubs, restaurants and hotels across the UK, including the Loch Fyne and Hungry Horse chains.

The planned deal is part of Greene King's shift into restaurants and pubs that serve food.

Under chief executive Rooney Anand, Greene King has been cutting the number of pubs it owns, including a deal in May which saw 275 tenanted and leased pubs sold to Hawthorn Leisure.

In July, Greene King announced preliminary annual profits of £105m, down 5% on the previous year.

Restaurants saw a 4.1% rise in profit, while profit growth at pubs was up just 2.2%.