Greene King has entered talks to buy the community pub estate of the Laurel Pub Company.
The Suffolk-based pub operator has confirmed that advanced negotiations are taking place. The price for the 432 pubs is likely to exceed £600 million, provided Laurel can unwind an earlier sale and leaseback deal on the outlets.
It is believed Laurel wants to concentrate on its 177 high street bars. The latest move follows a series of sell-offs at Laurel since it was created in 2001 with the acquistion of 3,000 former Whitbread pubs.
Greene King won through the final round of the bidding contest for the Laurel portfolio against three other bidders, understood to have been Punch, Spirit and Wolverhampton and Dudley.
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