Whitbread has bowed out of the running to buy Travelodge, the budget hotel chain, because of concerns competition authorities may have blocked any planned deal, reports The Financial Times, without citing sources. The paper reports the leisure company joins BC Partners, the buy-out firm. in withdrawing from the informal auction.

BC Partners is though to have walked away, the paper writes, because it could not justify the price-tag, which some people close to the situation have estimated at GBP700m to GBP800m.

Whitbread owns Premier Travel Inn, Travelodge’s larger rival, and combining the businesses could have sparked an investigation, the paper said.
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