What the Sunday papers said - 17 March
The Business
Pub groups Punch and Enterprise Inns were working over the weekend to finalise their bids for Nomura's Voyager and Unique pub chains. The two groups have until Monday morning to submit bids. Nomura wants £2.2bn. Read more on thePublican.com...
South African industrial buy-out specialist Bidvest is plotting an audacious £500m offer for Brake Brothers, the catering supplier that has launched a strategic review likely to lead to the firm's founding family selling the business. Read more about Brake Brothers being put up for sale on thePublican.com...
The British Chambers of Commerce will launch a campaign and think-tank this week in an effort to cut red tape, which it estimates costs business £15.6bn every year.
The Mail on Sunday
The Mail also notes that this week will see the climax of the battle for the 4,300 pubs being sold by Nomura. If the consortium including Enterprise Inns wins, the acquired pubs will be run as a seperate company called Unique. If Punch wins, it will delay its float until the autumn. If bids do not meet Nomura's expectations, it will retain ownership. But insiders are confident a deal will be done.
The Sunday Telegraph
Philip Morris, the US consumer goods giant, is preparing to sell its controlling stake in its Miller Brewing business and has appointed investment bankers to find a strategic partner for the beer operation. SAB is understood to be in talks over a potential Miller deal. Read more on SAB's interest in Miller on thePublican.com...
Cadbury Schweppes, the sweets and drinks maker, is preparing a $2bn bid for Adams, the US confectionary business owned by Pfizer, the world's biggest pharmaceuticals group.
The Sunday Times
Scotsman Hotel Group, chaired by Robert Breare, has made an informal approach to buy back the Malmaison hotel chain from Marylebone Warwick Balfour (MWB), the leisure conglomerate.
In a seperate interview, the head of Noble House Leisure says creating a business and watching it grow has become like a drug. Robert Breare resisted the call to spend his working life in the family print firm to pursue his entrepreneurial aspirations.
Restaurants are forcing consumers to sign disclaimer forms before they are served rare meat because of the risk of food poisoning. Planet Hollywood, Shoeless Joe's and All Bar One are among dozens of venues that are taking steps to avoid legal action. Others have decided to refuse to serve rare meat completely. But Aberdeen Steak House and Hard Rock Café chains are happy to serve meat as rare as customers would like.
The cost of red tape introduced since 1997 is more than £3bn a year, according to estimates to be published by the Bristish Bhambers of Commerce (BCC). Although small and medium sized firms welcomed Gordon Brown's clamp down on high street banks, the government must now address the stifling burden of red tape.
The Irish leisure company Thomas Read Holdings which owns the upmarket Morrison Hotel in Dublin as welas a string of bars,has put itself up for sale for up to 40m euros (£25m).
Andrew Page, finance director of City Centre Restaurants, which owns Garfunkel's and Frankie & Benny's fainted at an analysts presentation last week. It emerged that the cause was due to over-working and not from the effects of eating one of his own meals.
The Independent on Sunday
The new Crushguide to UK bars has been a bestseller because it rates venues according to whether they are good places to pull, reports The Independent on Sunday. Top places in London to find love include Cantaloupe, Nordic, Faces, Fuego, Dogstar, Bed, WKD, Purple, Islington's Elbow Room and Po Na Na Shepherd's Bush.
The Observer
More than a dozen Dutch-style cannabis cafes are being planned from Brighton and London to Glasgow because of hopes that the drug will be downgraded from Class B to Class C.
The FTNo industry-related news
The Sunday ExpressNo industry-related news
