Pub industry insiders have questioned whether the 26 unsold pubs in the SFI estate will find ready buyers.

The sites are the loose ends of the 150-strong group, which went into administration two weeks ago. Laurel, the pub group owned by Iranian property tycoon Robert Tchenguiz, snapped up 98 city-centre pubs and bars for £80m.

Meanwhile, administrator PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) closed a further 26 properties which it considered to be underperforming.
"If Tchenguiz doesn't want them, they must be crap," said one City analyst. "There might be question marks over the status of the leases."

Another industry insider said he would be surprised if anyone were interested in acquiring the package.

"It's a carcass that has been picked over quite a few times," he said. "Any buyer would have to be pretty brave to take them on. The majority of the sites were either losing or close to losing money."

But PWC administrator David Chubb dismissed the claims. He said: "We have had more than 100 enquiries from a whole range of operators, both large and small."