Pub company Admiral Taverns has acquired a portfolio of 137 pubs from rival chain Marston's for £44.9 million.
The deal - which includes includes a mixture of sites across England and Wales - is the latest in Admiral's growth strategy to expand its estate of community pubs.
Last month, Chester-headquartered-Admiral acquired 150 pubs from Star Pubs and Bars.
Now it has earmarked a further 137 sites from West Midlands -based Marston's, whose head office is in Wolverhampton.
Admiral has now teamed up with experienced managed-operator Helen Standing who 'will facilitate the transition of the pubs to the Admiral platform while the group evaluates the longer-term opportunities for the sites.'
Chris Jowsey, chief executive of Admiral Taverns said: " This is another exciting acquisition for our business, building on the strong momentum established over the course of the year and on behalf of the entire team I would like to take this opportunity to welcome our new licensees and colleagues to Admiral.
"We remain fully committed to the leased and tenanted model and through this acquisition have been able to acquire an excellent portfolio of pubs which we look forward to developing through our award-winning and highly supportive approach.
"I’m also very pleased that Helen Standing has agreed to partner with us to support the wider integration programme for some of these pubs. Helen is a highly successful, experienced operator who is well known to our team and we are looking forward to working very closely with her and these pubs."
Marston's owns around 1,545 pubs nationwide and operates six breweries which produce more than 60 different ales.
This includes Burton-on-Trent (Marston’s), Oxfordshire (Wychwood & Brakspear), Cumbria (Jennings), Hampshire (Ringwood), Bedford (Eagle) and the West Midlands (Banks’s).
It is disposing of "non-core assets" in a bid to reduce its debts.
Chief executive Ralph Findlay said: "We are making good progress with our plans to reduce our net debt by £200 million by 2023 in part through the disposal of non-core assets.
"We are encouraged by the level of market interest that this portfolio of pubs has attracted.
"This further underpins our confidence in achieving the accelerated £70 million disposal proceeds target that we have set ourselves for the current year.
"We remain focused on our stated objective of reducing our net debt by £200 million by 2023 or earlier, and thereafter operating a high quality business generating consistent net cashflow, after dividends, of at least £50 million per annum."
