In defence of it the £453m hostile bid by Pubmaster, Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries has issued a statement forecasting a 17 per cent rise in annual profits.

The board advised that pre-tax profits in the year to 29 September 2001 will rise by 16.9per cent to £76m, with earnings per share expected to rise by 10.7 per cent to 58p.

The defence document comes with a repeated urge to shareholders to continue to reject the Pubmaster offer, and the reiterated promise to return £200m in cash to shareholders.