Pub firm M&B ditches CEO, warns on profits

LONDON, Sept 22 (Reuters) - British pubs group Mitchells & Butlers on Tuesday said it had replaced its chief executive Alistair Darby with insider Phil Urban as it warned weak recent trade would push full-year profit to the bottom end of market forecasts.

The group, whose pubs include Harvester, Toby Carvery and All Bar One, said Urban (Other OTC: AQUM - news) , who joined M&B as Chief Operating Officer in January, would take control on Sept. 27 with Darby leaving the day before.

"The non-executive directors have considered the issue of the leadership of M&B very carefully and are delighted to announce Phil's appointment," Chairman Bob Ivell said.

M&B, whose shares are down 19 percent on a year ago, warned on profits after wet summer weather hurt recent sales growth. Total (Swiss: FP.SW - news) sales for the first 50 weeks of the year were up 7 percent and by 1 percent on a like-for-like basis, it said.

Prior to Tuesday's announcment analysts had forecast full-year pretax profit in a range of 179.40 million pounds to 203.90 million pounds, according to Reuters data, with a consensus of 189 million pounds ($293 million).

($1 = 0.6454 pounds) (Reporting by Neil Maidment, editing by James Davey)