Punch Taverns Plc, the biggest pubs firm in Britain, released its first half results today. Punch, which owns over 7100 pubs in UK, said that the pretax profit was reported down by 20% for the first six months of the fiscal.

The company said that the first half profit was negatively affected by the disposal of poor performance by its pubs nationwide.

Punch Taverns announced today that the pretax profit was reported of £66 million in the first half of the year, decreasing by 20% comparing to £82.3 million reported in the same period last year. Punch also said that it was spending £2 million per month in a support package for about 3000 struggling sites nationwide.

Total revenue in the first six months of the fiscal was reported of £676.6 million, decreasing by% while it was reported of £768 million in the same period last year.

Punch also revealed in its report that it is planning to generate £300 million pounds from pub sales this year.

The company has sold a large proportion of its pubs in order to pay off debts now worth £3.3 billion. The company said that in past 18 months it had paid off total debt of £1.3 billion.