Punch buys 34 pubs from Spirit

Punch Taverns has bought 34 pubs from Spirit Group for £12.75m in cash. The pubs, located across the UK, are currently operated as managed houses. They will convert to leased pubs when the acquisition is completed at the end of January 2003.

The acquisition will take the number of pubs in the Punch estate to 4,418. Punch has now bought 125 pubs since August. The company was set up in 1997 when Hugh Osmond and Roger Myers bought 1,500 pubs from Bass.