YOUNG’S, the family controlled London brewer and pub operator, has announced plans to scrap one of its three classes of shares, raising the possibility that it could become vulnerable to a takeover bid.

The company, which may also quit its 174-year-old brewery in Wandsworth, has sent a circular to shareholders detailing plans to drop its B shares and move its stock market listing from the main market to the Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

The B shares, which will be subsumed into an enlarged class of A shares, speak for 57 per cent of the votes and are held by the Young family and various family and staff trusts. The non-voting shares will continue to be traded on AIM.

The dual structure, which dates back to the brewer’s 1955 stock market listing, was regarded as takeover protection but speculation yesterday suggested that the move could leave it vulnerable to a bid.

Peter Whitehead, Young’s finance director, dismissed that suggestion because B shareholders would continue to speak for 57 per cent of the ordinary shares. He added: “It would make it easier for us to go out and make acquisitions but, again, that’s not why it has been done.”

The main reason was to simplify the share structure while preserving the B shareholders’ tax benefits, he said.

Mr Whitehead said the growing stature of AIM had persuaded Young’s to bite the bullet.

The B shareholders will lose the right to veto resolutions before shareholder meetings. However, a spokesman said it had been only a “theoretical” veto and the family had never used it, even when it was attacked by the Guinness Peat Group, the rebel shareholder that has a stake of about 10 per cent.

Blake Nixon, Guinness Peat’s UK executive director, said other changes meant the Young family’s 57 per cent holding may “ebb away” over time.

Times Recommends

• Minister in talks with Saudis to protect creditors
• Premier Inn hits back in £29-a-room row
• Bankers hit back at 'populist' bonus supertax