Punch Taverns plc today announces that it has agreed to acquire 34 pubs from Spirit Group Ltd for a cash payment of £12.75 million. The pubs are located throughout the country and are currently operated by Spirit Group as managed pubs. Punch Taverns will operate them as leased pubs from completion of the acquisition, which is anticipated to be at the end of January 2003.
This acquisition takes the total number of pubs (after completion of this transaction) in Punch Taverns’ estate to 4,418 and the number of pubs acquired since August 2002 to 125.

Giles Thorley, Executive Chairman of Punch Taverns, said;

"We are very pleased with this addition to our portfolio which demonstrates our flexible attitude towards acquiring leased and managed pubs in packages, as well as individual freehouses. This transaction is a further example of our strategy to grow our pub portfolio through selected acquisition and investment.”

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