What the Sunday papers said
The Business
Britain's biggest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle, is studying a proposal to unlock up to £1.2bn from the sale of all or part of its portfolio of 1,400 managed pubs. The options include a straight trade sale, a bond issue or a sale-and-leaseback deal with a real estate or financial investor.
Punch, the pub group preparing to list on the London Stock Exchange, expects to see pre-tax profits rise from £225m last year to £290m by 2004, an increase of 29 per cent, according to private documents outlining the institutional share offer.
The increase of one per cent in national insurance contributions (NICs)for employees and employers from next April is a multi-billion pound hit on companies where it hurts most - their bottom line. Labour intensive companies will be hardest hit. Wolverhampton & Dudley tops the scale and the NICs impact on its profits is estimated at 4.3 per cent. JD Wetherspoon and Whitbread are expected top take a 1.2 per cent hit.
The Mail on Sunday
Like buses, stock market flotations come all at once, says the Mail and the raft of companies due to list on the London Stock Exchange in the coming weeks has got the City's pulse racing. Punch is just one of a number of firms that will have a value in excess of £1bn. Others include retailer HMV, fashion house Burberry and possibly baker Ranks Hovis McDougall. There are stirrings in the flotation market - but don't call it a boom just yet.
The share-tip column says that shares in Ultimate Leisure should be bought for the long-term as the company drives its business south, from its original north-east roots. The company has delivered consistent growth since listing on Aim in July 1999.
The Sunday Telegraph
Cadbury Schweppes is poised to announce a £350m takeover of Danday, one of Europe's biggest chewing-gum businesses.
ITV Digital is seeking to sell the pay-TV rights it owns to the Uefa Champions League, possibly to BskyB, to raise cash to help fund its future under plans being worked on by the company's administrators, Deloitte & Touche.
The Weekend FT
Shares in Allied Domecq underperformed rival Diageo amid expectations that half-year results at the end of April will show flat sales in its core drinks business.
ITV Digital is to cut half its staff as the ailing pay-TV business loses 3,000 customers a day. The move by the administrators to halve ITV Digital's daily operating costs of nearly £1m is likely to cost 900 jobs.
The Sunday Times
Six Continents is listed in major share movements after it climbed 47.5p last week to close on Friday at 778p after speculation that it will go ahead with a share buy-back programme.
The Football League is ready to accept £92.5m to settle its bitter dispute with the shareholders in ITV Digital, which is in administration and may face liquidation.
Gordon Brown's new tax-and-spend strategy, unveiled in Wednesday's budget, means he has turned his back on joining the Euro during this parliament. Analysts say Britain will now struggle to qualify. Economists predict that Brown, who has already clashed with the European commission over his fiscal plans, is now likely to fall foul of Europe's rules for entering the single currency over the next few years.
