British bank Alliance & Leicester Plc said on Monday it had sold customer leases worth 391 million pounds and the deal would boost its second half pretax profit by 30 million pounds.

The sale of the leases, which Britain's seventh biggest listed bank had booked as assets held for sale in its interim financial books, will be accounted for as other operating income in its results for the second half, the company said in a statement.

We will continue to proactively manage our commercial lending book, although we have no current plans for further customer lease sales during the remainder of 2006, it said.

Shares in Alliance & Leicester edged up 0.1 percent to 1,061 pence by 0810 GMT, valuing the group at around 4.7 billion pounds.

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