Battle for Revolution Bars heats up

Revolution Bars is the subject of a potential bidding war

Joanna Hodgson24 August 2017

The bar room brawl for Revolution Bars got more heated on Thursday, as nightclubs giant Deltic made a second attempt to gatecrash pub chain Stonegate’s £101.5 million takeover of the cocktails specialist.

Deltic, which is behind 57 UK venues, said it is “evaluating a possible cash offer” for Revolution.

It revealed the news around 30 minutes after Slug & Lettuce owner Stonegate put out an announcement saying it had reached an agreement to buy Revolution with a 203p per share offer.

Keith Edelman, Revolution’s non-executive chairman said Stonegate’s offer “provides considerable opportunities for our people and for the business as a whole”.

Deltic’s Peter Marks said: “We are working hard on a more attractive alternative proposal having delivered a market leading performance in our last year.”

The updates come a week after Deltic, advised by Stifel, proposed an all-share merger with London-listed Revolution, which has been grappling with higher business rates and wages. The firm rebuffed the approach.

The bidding war sent shares in Revolution 22.06p higher, or more than 11%, to 207.81p.