MEDIA group Pearson, which owns the Financial Times, said yesterday its regional newspaper subsidiary, Westminster Press, had agreed to sell its South East London & Kentish Mercury titles to a subsidiary of Chester based Trinity International Holdings.

The loss making titles, which comprise the Lewisham Mercury, Greenwich Mercury and Bexley Mercury, have a combined free weekly distribution of more than 150,000 copies.

Pearson said the discussions over the deal had pre dated its decision to offer Westminster Press for sale and it did not affect the proposed sale of Westminster as a single entity.