1,750 pubs up for sale in overhaul

Some 1,750 pubs have been put up for sale as part of the overhaul of Inntrepreneur, owned by Courage, the brewer, and Grand Metropolitan, the food and drinks group.

The pubs, which are free of any beer supply tie, have been rehoused in a £254m deal with Phoenix Inns, a company formed by Morgan Grenfell, the merchant bank, that will run the estate until it is sold.

This will leave Inntrepreneur with 4,330 pubs, all of which have to buy beer from Courage until March 1998. While the pubs sold to Phoenix are free of tie, more than 1,200 of them still choose to buy beer from Courage.

A spokeswoman for Courage said: "The split makes sense. The two estates have differing needs, and there is no logic in continued ownership of the free-of-tie estate."

There is speculation that British Land is close to buying 320 Chef & Brewer pubs, sold to Morgan Grenfell last year and leased to Scottish & Newcastle.

Inntrepreneur was also re-financed yesterday, which will result in a £6m reduction in annual interest charges. An outstanding £360m loan was repaid to Grand Met, and 20 banks agreed to fresh facilities on £800m of debts at interest rates of between 7.5 and 7.75 per cent.

The banking facility has been underwritten by National Westminster, JP Morgan, Chase Manhattan, Sumitomo and Citibank. Grand Met and Courage will each have a £212m equity interest in Inntrepreneur. Its pubs are valued at about £1.2bn, equal to around £277,000 each.