Osmond will make hostile bid if necessary

UK entrepreneur Hugh Osmond will make a hostile bid for the leisure group Six Continents if his proposed offer is rebuffed, it emerged today.

Mr Osmond – best known for floating the Pizza Express and Punch Taverns businesses – confirmed his interest in making an approach and attacked the way the takeover target was run.

He said: “Six Continents has had a lot of time to improve its performance. I see no reason to say this particular leopard will change its spots.”

Mr Osmond’s investment company Capital Management and Investment (CMI) said Six Continents had delivered “unacceptably low” returns over recent years.

Under CMI’s four-point plan for the group Mr Osmond said it would break up the hotels business to be sold in chunks to rival hoteliers or run in partnerships.

Overall the Six Continents group operates more than 3,200 hotels across nearly 100 countries under brands such as Holiday Inn and Inter-Continental and has 2,000 pubs and restaurants under brands including All Bar One, O’Neills and Harvester.