PUBS and brewing group Greene King is to acquire four pub restaurants from Punch Taverns in a deal valued at �5.3million.

The deal, due to be completed on July 8, will be financed out of funds raised by the Bury St Edmunds company through its rights issue of new shares last year

Greene King described the properties, in Scotland and the East Midlands, as “highly attractive, food-led, destination sites” and said they met the strategic and financial criteria set out at the time of the rights issue, having generated headline earnings of �342,000 last year.

Following completion of the deal, the group would have invested �100m of the rights issue proceeds in acquiring and improving a total of 34 pubs and the repurchase of debt at below par, it added.

Rooney Anand, Grene King chief executive, said: “We are very pleased to have acquired these sites. They are freehold retail sites in great locations currently trading below their potential.

“We expect to convert the sites into our market-leading pub restaurant brands, Hungry Horse and Eating Inn, further strengthening our position in the UK eating out market”.