M&B has enjoyed an increase in quarterly sales

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) made the announcement as it unveiled a 4.3% rise in quarterly sales, and said it could return up to �500m to investors.

Whitbread said on Tuesday that it was selling the under-performing sites.

M&B owns the Harvester and All Bar One chains. Earlier this month it rejected a private equity takeover approach.

The �2.7bn offer on 13 April came from the R20 group, led by tycoon Robert Tchenguiz.

Debt increase?

M&B chief executive Tim Clark said on Friday morning that the planned �500m return of capital to investors could be scaled back if it buys the Whitbread assets, which are valued at �450m.

Investment bank Morgan Stanley said that M&B might choose to buy the Beefeater and Brewers Fayre outlets by raising its debts, thereby still allowing it to return between �250m to �300m to shareholders.

M&B's like-for-like second quarter sales rose 4.3% in the 13 weeks to 22 April, an increase on the 4% rise seen in the first quarter, it said in a trading update.