Pub group's pounds 500m float is canned

GRAND Metropolitan, the drinks to fast food group, and the brewer Courage have shelved plans to float Inntrepreneur, the pub company they own writes Robert Cole.

With a projected price tag of pounds 500m the Inntrepreneur float would have been one of the summer's biggest issues.

Its postponement is further evidence that intitutional fund managers are increasing wary of investing in stockmarket newcomers.

Last week Healthcall, a medical services company, scaled back the size of its issue in response to market doubts about the potential profitablity of investing in floats.

Plans to sell Inntrepreneur appear to have foundered on price. Inntrepreneur owns 6,500 pubs and 2,000 were to be sold as an independent concern.

Inntrepreneur is an important customer for Courage. It supplies beer to half the Inntrepreneur outlets. But the deal falls away in 1998 and Courage will be attempting to negotiate longer contracts.