REGIONAL brewer Wolverhampton and Dudley Breweries (W&DB) has forecast a 17 per cent jump in full-year profits, as it made a final attempt to convince shareholders to reject Pubmaster's £453m bid for the business.

In a second defence document, W&DB said it expected to register profits of £76m, reflecting underlying trading improvements at the group, which brews Banks and Pedigree ales.

The company said it was hopeful of generating £135m through the sale of 170 of its 1,600 pubs, including the Pitcher and Piano chain.

Part of the cash will be used to fund a £100m share buy-back before December, the first half of the £200m W&DB has promised to return to shareholders by April next year.

Pubmaster said W&DB's comments were nothing new.

"Wolves talks off valuable assets, but forgets to mention its persistent mismanagement of these businesses," a spokesman said. "That is why they are up for sale."

Pubmaster, based in Hartlepool, launched its hostile bid for Wolves on June 15, after months of speculation over the brewer's future.

It has until next week to decide whether to increase its offer. So far, just 9.8 per cent of W&DB shareholders - representing 4.6 per cent of its share capital - have backed Pubmaster's 480p-per-share approach.

W&DB, which cannot issue any further defence, unveiled restructuring plans in April, saying it would be closing two of its four breweries in a bid to improve performance.

Yesterday, chief executive Ralph Findlay said trading was good, with like-for-like sales growth across its pubs.

He said that Pubmaster could not justify its offer by comparing its bid to W&DB's share price a year ago - 347p against 481p yesterday.

"The sector has moved on a lot. Last year it was undervalued because of the high-tech boom. It's actually recovered by 37 per cent since August 2000," he said.

Chairman David Thompson said Pubmaster's bid offered poor value to W&DB shareholders and fundamentally undervalued the business.

He said: "Our profit forecast demonstrates the good underlying trading improvements we have achieved since March last year, despite the distractions of being in an offer period for nearly a year.

"The board of W&DB strongly urges shareholders to continue to reject the offer."

W&DB said it had received offers totalling £121m for 112 of the 170 pubs and sites it intends to sell - an 11 per cent premium over book value.