Shareholders of family-owned pub company Hardys & Hansons (H&H) approved the terms of the company’s acquisition by pub giant Greene King yesterday (15 August).

A significant majority of the H&H’s family and ordinary shareholders voted in favour of the scheme at separate meetings.

Greene King made the £271m agreed offer for the 174-year-old Midlands pub company and brewer in June this year. The H&H estate comprises 268 pubs, including 83 managed and 185 tenanted.

The deal is the latest in a series of aggressive moves by Greene King which has seen the regional brewer grow to a national giant, with more than 2,400 pubs. Last year it bought Scotland’s Belhaven brewery and Essex pub company and brewer Ridley’s.

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By Matthew Batham

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