Leisure group Hilton expects to complete the sale of two of its Midland hotels as part of a £400 million deal within the next few weeks.

The company has put the Bromsgrove and Coventry sites on the market as part of a package of 18 venues across the country.

It said it was in negotiations with "one or two" interested parties as part of a sale and management arrangement which would see Hilton continue to run the hotels.

Alex Pagett, director of group corporate affairs, said: "These two hotels are in a tranche of 18 we have put up for sale, and there is a lot of interest.

"We are confident of doing a deal in the next three, four or five weeks."

The spokesman would not reveal the identity of the bidders, only to say they were "serious players."

Money raised from the sale would be used to reduce debt and also paid back to shareholders, the spokesman said.

"The bulk of our hotels are owned by someone else, but we have a management contract.

"This is a capital light approach which reduces our capital exposure.

"The same standards will be maintained by our staff, but the new owner shares in the gain, though also the pain." The 802 room Hilton Metropole at the NEC will not be part of the deal, which also includes sites at Edinburgh Airport, London Olympia, Southampton, and Gatwick.

The Hilton Metropole was one of the regional hotels which had suffered a downturn in occupancy levels and revenue per allocated room (revpar) over the last six months, Hilton said yesterday.

High levels of occupancy in London were offset by difficult trading elsewhere in the country, with problems in the leisure and conference business - particularly at the Birmingham Metropole.

The company's regional division saw revpar decrease by 0.8 per cent, driven by a 2.7 percentage point decrease in occupancy.

The spokesman said this was not because of any enormous problems at the Metropole, but the cyclical nature of business conferences which had affected four other of its major business hotels.

He said: "Many major companies have their conferences every two or three years.

"This business has high and low points and we are currently in a low.

"The Metropole depends a lot on business guests, so it is particularly susceptible to this, but we are sure it is going to do very well in 2006."

The company as a whole sounded a confident note about its future, despite first-half profits at its hotels in the UK and Ireland falling by more than a fifth.

Hilton, which owns the Ladbrokes betting firm, said forward bookings for 2006 looked more positive after the division saw profits slip 22.6 per cent to £30.1 million in the six months to June 30.

It added that the arm was showing signs of improvement despite the " short- term impact" of the July London bombings.

Overall, underlying group pretax profits increased to £192.1 million from £191.3 million last time, as a tough first half for Ladbrokes was offset by a better performance from its worldwide hotel chain.

Hilton said: "The outlook for the group remains strong with Ladbrokes and Hilton both enjoying steady growth."

The hotels division increased worldwide operating profits by 10.7 per cent to £72.6 million after "healthy" growth in revenues per available room in all areas of the world, apart from the UK.

But Ladbrokes saw operating profits fall by six per cent to £143.6 million.

It suffered from unfavourable results at major sporting events including Aintree and Epsom, as well as tough comparatives from last year's European Football Championships.