Enterprise Inns (ETI), the leased and tenanted pub company, has reportedly stepped up plans for a larger disposal programme.
According to the Sunday Times the group has employed CB Richard Ellis to examine the possibility of selling groups of units to institutional investors.
It is thought the move could raise around £100m.
Such an initiative would mark a change of strategy for the group, which has previously disposed of pubs individually by auction and then leasing them back from the buyers.
At its interim results in July the group, which is led by chief executive Ted Tuppen, said it sold 69 pubs for around £110m so far this year via its sale and leaseback programme, achieving a substantial profit over book value and an average yield of 6.4%
It said: “Whilst there are no further auctions before the end of our financial year, we are in direct negotiation with a number of parties and expect to complete a few more sale and leaseback transactions before the year end.”
A spokesman for the group added: "The company has received a number of approaches from companies and institutions interested in acquiring small batches of pubs under the sale and leaseback programme and these are being evaluated."
ETI has an estate of almost 7000 pubs throughout England and Wales.
