One of the world's biggest investment banks, Nomura, is strengthening its grip on the UK leisure industry with a £700 million sterling acquisition yesterday of the William Hill bookmakers from Brent Walker. The deal comes less than a month after Nomura paid £1.2 billion for the Inntrepreneur Pub Company and Spring Inns.

Those acquisitions propelled Nomura into the largest pub landlord in the UK.

Added to the 1,130 pubs in the Phoenix Inns chain already owned by Nomura, the Japanese bank will have an estate of more than 5,400 pubs - around 9 per cent of the total.

The £700 million purchase of William Hill, Britain's second biggest bookmaking chain, strengthens the bank's hold on the British leisure industry.

Once the William Hill deal has been completed with The Grand Bookmaking Company, a company set up by Nomura, Brent Walker will be officially removed from the stock market.

Following that, Brent Walker said it would consider liquidating the company and dissolving its remaining subsidiaries and extracting £49 million from William Hill. This would still leave large debts.