Welcome Break is to sell and lease back eight of its motorway service stations as part of a £386.9m rescue plan.

The eight motorway service areas are to be sold to Rotch Property Group in a deal worth £247.5m.

The deal has been put together by Investcorp, the Middle Eastern finance group that bought Welcome Break from Granada for £476m in February 1997.

Investcorp will also invest an extra £33m into Welcome Break, enabling the company to increase its bank debt by more than £100m.

Just under £350m of the money will be used to buy out bondholders in the company.

A spokesman said: "It makes it a more efficient financing and there will be a smaller debt burden on the company."

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