UK big three in pub deal

Punch Taverns is acquiring Allied Domecq Retailing in the UK for £2.75 billion ($4.4 billion). This will make Punch the second-largest public house operator in the UK after Nomura Securities. Rival leisure company Whitbread retired from the fight to gain control of Allied when the UK Department of Trade and Industry decided that The Competition Commission would have to examine the Whitbread bid.