The speculation surrounding Young's sale of its London brewery site continued as the company's recent results showed modest growth in profits.
Interim results for the 26 weeks to 25 September showed turnover up 5.5 per cent to £60.9m with adjusted profit before tax up 5.3 per cent to £5.1m.
Like-for-like pre-tax profit dipped 4.3 per cent to £4.8m with lower property profits and £400,000 exceptional costs relating to the ongoing review into the potential development value of the Ram Brewery cited as major contributing factors.
Young's chief executive Stephen Goodyear refused to be drawn on either a date or ball-park figure for the widely predicted sale of the historic Wandsworth brewery site, though industry estimates have put the value as high as £50m.
"We have been at the review for nearly a year but it is still difficult to put a date on it," he said.
On the broader results, Mr Goodyear was upbeat: "We are very pleased with the figures which show overall progress in underlying performance, especially as we were up against the formidable sales of last summer."
The sale of four underperforming pubs and three loss-making city wine bars contributed to a 4.4 per cent growth and 6 per cent profit increase in Young's managed pubs division. Negligible growth in the tenanted division was put down to the transfer of two high turnover pubs to the managed division.
Young's greatest growth was witnessed in its core business of brewing with total beer production up 18.8 per cent to 85,173 barrels - 25,000 of this from an increased volume in its contract brewing for Courage.
However, sales of Young's own cask ales grew 5.8 per cent, with heavy investing in advertising boosting Young's bitter by 8.5 per cent. Young's also grew the free-trade market for its own beers by 8.5 per cent.