The owner of easyinternetcafé, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has dropped the strongest hint yet that he might be selling off the standalone stores and operating the business from other retailers’ outlets.

Speculation over the future of the company has been rife after it admitted that it had placed its most valuable property – its Oxford Street outlet in London – on the market.

In a statement, the company said that it had “been advised that it could get a sizable premium on the sale of the lease of its Oxford street store.”

The statement continued: “The other four London ‘megastores’, which are only a small part of our overall estate of almost 70 outlets in nine countries, will be reviewed from time to time as the property market hots up.”

The group has insisted that the chain is not up for sale and was only looking to concentrate on arrangements to operate in the premises of companies such as Burger King, McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s, rather than having its own name on long property leases.