Mitchells & Butlers, the FTSE100 bar operator that owns the Harvester chain, will this week bow to pressure from Robert Tchenguiz by handing one of his key lieutenants a boardroom seat. Sunday Telegraph, Sunday Times
Tim Smalley, an executive at the Tchenguiz investment vehicle, R20 - M&B’s biggest shareholder - will be appointed a non-executive director of the owner of All Bar One when it unveils the results of a strategic review to a sceptical City on Tuesday.
The appointment will be accompanied by a pledge from Tim Clarke, M&B’s under-fire chief executive, to initiate a further analysis of M&B’s property portfolio with a view to its eventual separation.
Smalley’s recruitment hints that a rapprochement has been reached between Clarke and Tchenguiz, who has not distanced himself from suggestions that he would seek to oust Clarke if the review failed to produce a commitment to undertake significant corporate activity, such as a takeover or sale to a private equity investor.