A major hospitality company is said to be exploring the sale of about 250 of its pub-restaurants for an estimated £600million.
Whitbread is reportedly planning to get rid of sites, including Beefeater and Brewers Fayre, that are either marginal or loss-making - and is restricting the auction to established pub operators.
Mitchells & Butlers, the owner of Harvester and Toby Carvery, is said to be the frontrunner to buy the pubs - but rivals such as Greene King, Heineken, Marston's and Punch being approached too.
Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, has previously completed deals with M&B, for example when it exchanged 44 pub restaurants with 21 M&B hotels.
The company is understood to be running a tight process to avoid the uncertainty of a long, drawn-out disposal, reports The Times.
The history of Whitbread goes back to 1742 when Samuel Whitbread went into partnership with Godfrey and Thomas Shewell.
Mr Whitbread created the first purpose-built mass-production brewery in the UK in 1750 and became a household name all around the country over the following years.
After 200 years in business, the company opened the first Beefeater in 1974 and the first Travel Inn in 1987.
In the 1990s, Whitbread bought chains such as TGI Fridays, Marriott Hotels and TGI Fridays - which were laster sold in 2000 - before purchasing Costa Coffee from Sergio and Bruno Costa in 1995.
It comes after Marston's Brewery put 61 pubs up for sale following a review of its estate.
The group, which operates over 1,400 pubs across the UK, put 61 of its "non-core" venues on the market earlier this year.
The sites are a mix of leased, tenanted, retail and managed pubs and are being marketed by the commercial real estate agency Christie & Co under the name "Project Aramis" reports the Caterer.
Judith Rafique, head of estates at Marston's, said the move would allow the pub group to focus on its "strategic objectives" and "maximise returns" across its core sites.
In January, we also reported that Wetherspoons put 35 pubs across the UK for sale.
Whitbread has declined to comment.
