Together again

Giles Thorley, the chief executive of Punch Taverns, has played a canny game of poker to snap up Spirit Group for £2.7bn, the same as he first offered back in the summer. Under pressure to match a bid from property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, he stuck to his guns and waited for the Tchenguiz bid to fall apart, correctly guessing that Spirit’s private equity backers would prefer the certainty his bid offered of a payday before the end of the year. As a result, Punch is reunited with Spirit, the mana...