Former Pizza Express partners Hugh Osmond and Luke Johnson are expected to go head to head in bids for Whitbread's 3,000-strong pub estate. Punch Taverns boss Osmond is poised to re-enter the bidding following an indicative offer when the estate was first put on the market last December. Already Britain's second largest pub landlord, Punch has approached by several financial backers in a deal that could be worth £1.7bn. Fellow leisure entrepreneur and chair of the Belgo group, Luke Johnson, is also interested in the estate and is reported to have put together a consortium in less than a fortnight. American bank Lehman brothers and Morgan Grenfell Private Equity are expected to make a joint £1.65m bid. Other contenders include Nomura, the UK's largest landlord following the acquisition of the Bass estate last week, and private equity firm Candover. Whitbread declined to comment on the bidders due to a confidentiality agreement, but it has indicated that its final decision will be delivered at the end of March.