* Shares in pub owners fall after parliament vote
* Move to give tenants more freedom on beer buying
By Neil Maidment and William James
LONDON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - British pub groups suffered onWednesday after lawmakers backed a move to hand publicans morecontrol over where they buy beer, hitting shares and raisingquestions over the structure of the industry.
Shares in Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns,owners of more than 9,000 British pubs, tumbled as investorsreacted to bill changes announced on Tuesday, which thecompanies fear could lead to job losses and closures.
Almost half of Britain's 50,000 pubs are run by tenantsunder traditional "beer-tie" agreements, which mean thepublicans buy beer from the firm that holds their lease at abovemarket prices. In return they get subsidised rent or otherbenefits.
Some publicans have complained such deals can be unfair andoffer very low salaries, leading government to unveil reformplans in June. Those plans, which included rent reviews, weresharpened on Tuesday to include an option to allow publicans tobuy beer at more competitive prices on the open market.
This was despite government research showing it could leadto pub closures and lost jobs in a sector already hit by a banon smoking and cheaper alcohol sold in supermarkets.
"This could have material consequences for the tenanted pubsector," analysts at Barclays said. They calculated that aswitch of all pubs to rent only options could hit profits atEnterprise and Punch by 19 and 24 percent respectively.
However both firms would likely respond to such changes bycutting support for tenants, selling off pubs or switchingothers to a group managed format, Barclays said.
Both Enterprise and Punch, whose shares were down 16 and 11percent respectively, said they were assessing options andawaited the government's response to the change to the bill,aimed at companies with more than 500 tenanted and leased pubs.
"This amendment, which was not supported by the government,threatens to have serious unintended consequences for publicansand the industry at large," said Enterprise Chief ExecutiveSimon Townsend.
TRADITIONAL TIE
The changes will be passed to parliament's upper chamber fordebate, although government's chances of gaining enough supportto significantly water down the rules are slim due to its weakerinfluence there. Legal challenges by companies affected areexpected, however, analysts said.
The beer-tie originated centuries ago when breweries boughtup pubs to make it easier to serve their local markets. Itsdefenders say it offers people a cheap route into the pub trade.
At Enterprise Inns, which has around 5,500 pubs, only 1-2percent of licensees ask to opt out of the tie each year. Likerivals, the firm has argued that its agreement ensures bigcompanies invest in pubs to help grow profits.
Greg Mulholland, a lawmaker from the coalition government'sjunior Liberal Democrat party who proposed the changes that werepassed on Tuesday, disagreed.
"It's time that we move forward, that the exploitation ofthe large companies' licensees becomes a thing of the past, andthen we will move to a more sustainable future for thousands ofpubs up and down the country," Mulholland told Reuters.(1 US dollar = 0.6380 British pound) (Editing by Keith Weir)