DineEquity Inc. said Tuesday that it has completed a sale-leaseback deal for 181 Applebee’s company-owned restaurants. The deal generated $296 million, considerably less than expected.

Under the deal, DineEquity, which is the new name for Ihop Corp., sold the locations to affiliates of several Drawbridge funds, which are affiliates of alternative asset manager Fortress Investment Group. The casual dinning chain said it will use the proceeds from the sale to pay down debt.

After the sale, the buyers leased the locations back to Glendale-based DineEquity.

DineEquity said in May it planned to sell and lease back 187 of the company-owned real estate parcels, but gave Drawbridge the right to refuse to purchase up to 15 percent of the restaurant sites if they were deemed to have material defects. DineEquity also said it expected to land $347 million in proceeds from the deal.

The casual dinning chain owner also sold 41 company-owned Applebee’s restaurants in March to the chain’s largest franchisee, Apple American Group LLC, for undisclosed terms.

DineEquity has said since acquiring Applebee’s in November for $1.9 billion that it plans to franchise a majority of the company-owned restaurants over the next two-and-a-half years.

Shares in DineEquity were up 4.3 percent to $46.24 in early trading Tuesday.