Analysts expect Punch Taverns to sell more pubs from the bottom half of the InnSpired estate.
Avebury Taverns and County Estate Management are tipped as buyers.
Punch Taverns climbed 11p to 513p following the news on Friday that it had bought InnSpired from Alchemy Partners for £335m. It said it would sell on 88 pubs from the enlarged estate to Admiral Taverns for £22.6m to avoid regulatory issues.
Synergies are expected to amount to more than £3m a year from buying benefits and other cost savings once integration is complete.
Giles Thorley, Punch chief executive, confirmed Peter Brook, InnSpired’s managing director would remain "for the time being".
The deal topped off a week for Punch with growing hopes that the tenanted pub industry would receive a favourable ruling from the parliamentary committee inquiry into the relationship between pub landlords and their tenants.
Financial Times (Money & Business) 11/09/04 page 2, page 22 (Market Weeks UK – London)
Financial Times 11/09/04 page 16 (Lex)
The Times 11/09/04 page 54, page 55 (Need to know)
The Daily Telegraph 11/09/04 page 31
