Brewing and leisure giant Bass has announced it is to sell more than 1,400 of its pubs for £563.7m.

It revealed that after the sale it plans to hand back £850m to its shareholders.

The move comes just a day after it revealed the £279m sale of 130 Gala bingo clubs.

The company said it would return the capital to shareholders in the form of a bonus issues of preference shares, equivalent to 11% of the group's stock market value.

Bass Taverns Chief Executive Tim Clarke said: "The sale of these pubs will enable Bass Taverns to focus on developing its managed operations through the roll-out of its retail brands, the development of food sales and local estate market share gains.

Further details of the planned bonus share issue will be announced in January, for approval at an extraordinary general meeting

In a statement to investors, the company said: "Following the return of capital Bass will still have the financial resources to take advantage of opportunities to make strategic acquisitions."

It said its planned £680m investment for 1997 to 1998 would not be affected by the proposals.

The group is selling most of the pubs in its Bass Lease Company to a new company backed by venture capital group BT Capital Partners Europe, part of American bank Bankers Trust. The new company is run by business-people previously involved in the Pizza Express and Cafe Rouge chains.

The sale involves 1,190 leased pubs and 238 managed pubs which are in the process of being converted to lease.

All employees of the business, including management, will transfer to the new owners when the deal is completed in April.

In the year to September 30, the pubs being sold made an operating profit of £67m and had assets worth £441m.

Bass Taverns operates 2,500 managed pubs, including brands such as Harvester, Toby, Vintage Inns, All Bar One and O'Neill's.

The group's hotels division operates or franchises 2,300 hotels, including Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza, in 60 countries.

Its brewing arm produces brands including Bass, Carling Black Label, Tennent's Lager, and Caffrey's Irish Ale, while it is also one of the country's biggest soft drinks makers through Britvic.
 

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