With a war chest bolstered by the sale of its Wandsworth brewery site, Young & Co is set to ramp up the size of its estate across London and the South East.
Announcing its results for the six months to September 30 2006, Young's says it has "substantial headroom for funding acquisitions" and would "target pubs in our existing trading areas of London and Southern England".
The group sold the brewery site to property developers for £69m earlier this year and entered a joint venture with Charles Wells to brew its beers at the latter's Bedford operation.
It has already spent £32.5m of this on 14 pubs it acquired from Punch Taverns.
Young's said overall turnover rose 10.6 per cent in the first half to £69.1m, with operating profits down 4.1 per cent to £5.8m.
Turnover for its 116-strong managed pub business rose 15.2 per cent, with food sales accounting for more than a fifth. Managed house operating profits were up 7.1 per cent.
The group's 105 tenanted and leased pubs saw turnover down 1.7 per cent and profits down 14.7 per cent, "as a direct result of the transfer of some landmark tenanted pubs back into management".
Patrick Dardis, Young's retail director, said there were "significant investment plans" for both the managed and the tenanted businesses.
Youngs was also looking to transfer its three-year tenancies over to 20-year leases, he said.