Marston's, which has 2,100 pubs in Britain, said trying to shift from pubs selling mainly drink to pubs selling food and drink to attract more women, families and older customers.
"We are managing that transition from the kind pubs where people used to go, but don't go to anymore, to those where they do," Chief Executive Ralph Findlay said.
Findlay also said the sale would allow the company to cut debt servicing costs and also help with financing the accelerated rollout of its new pub-restaurants which are achieving good returns.
The group, whose outlets include the Pitcher and Piano chain, reported a one percent rise in underlying profit for the year to Oct. 5 to 88.4 million pounds ($143.89 million), slightly below analysts' consensus forecasts for profits of 90.45 million, according to Thomson Reuters data.
The company said net debt, excluding lease financing, was 1.082 billion pounds Oct. 5, 39 million down from the previous year.
After a weaker first half of the year, Marston's said good weather had boosted sales in the last few months and expected this trend would continue into the Christmas season.
Like-for-like sales for the seven weeks to Nov. 23 at its food-focused Destination and Premium pubs, which make up almost half of the group profits, were up 3.1 percent.
"Current trading has been encouraging, I think that's good against the market," Findlay said. "Now the key Christmas period is coming up and the Christmas bookings look very strong compared with last year."
Rival pubs group Mitchells & Butlers this week announced a 0.1 uptick in sales for the eight-week period starting Sep. 29.
Marston's built 22 new outlets this year and now intends to open 25-30 new food-focused pubs a year.
"Marston's is now aggressively selling the tail of its estate and recycling the proceeds into new builds with higher returns, growth prospects and longevity," Jefferies analysts said in a note. "In time, there is a strong argument for a re-rating to reflect the higher quality earnings."
Its shares were nearly 7 percent lower by 1417 GMT.
Marston's expects capital expenditure to be about 140 million pounds in 2014, against 151 million pounds in 2013.
The company increased its final dividend by 5 percent to 4.1 pence per share.
