What the Sunday papers said
The Sunday Telegraph
Whitbread, the hotels and leisure group, will this week draw a line under one of its worst-performing investments with the sale of its Pelican restaurants group to private-equity group ECI Ventures, for £50m. Whitbread paid £133m for the chain in 1996.
Britain faces yet more tax rises and an increase in government borrowing to fund Labour's spending plans because Gordon Brown's assumptions for economic growth are too optimistic, according to Ernst & Young.
In his excellent weekly column, BBC business editor Jeff Randall says that with the demise of the high-tech sector, booze and fags are back in vogue. So called "old economy" had lost their sparkle - their only crime was "an inextricable association with the demoded corporate attributes such as cash-flow, brands, and assets. Worst of all, tut tut, they made significant profits." He says he would much rather in companies "whose income is derived from gin and tonics rather than clicks and mnemonics."
City Centre Restaurants, which operates Caffe Uno and Garfunkel's, is tipped as a buy. Alan Jackson has spent the last 12 months putting the house in order. It has disposed of ill-performing brands and the shares trade at an attractive discount to Pizza Express.
The Sunday Times
Charles Wells, the Bedfordshire brewer that makes Bombardier, has been placed in the Sunday Times Profit Track 100 as one of the fastest growing companies in Britain. Since 1997, it has grown profits year-on-year by 26.6 per cent. The Edrington Group, the whisky distiller behind Famous Grouse and Cutty Sark was also listed, as was rival whisky-maker, William Grant & Sons.
Pizza Express is experiencing a slowdown and annual forecasts have been downgraded. The company has to convince fund managers it has not run out of steam, and the shares should be avoided.
Carlton and Granada, the ITV companies, may bid for the future rights to show Football League matches in an effort to end the dispute over the collapse of ITV Digital. Such a deal would deflect creditors of the failed company who are considering suiing the shareholders for a total of £1bn.
The Mail on Sunday
The main shareholder in Punch Taverns, Britain's second-largest pub company, will keep its entire stake after Punch floats on the London Stock Exchange next month. Texas Pacific has backed the group since 1999, to the tune of £500m. It will keep its 30 per cent stake because 'it thinks it's a better bet than anything else.'
Three pub firms have made it through to the second round of bidding for Morrells of Oxford. Sources close to the sale say Noble House Leisure, Punch Taverns and Greene King are looking closely at the business, which has 131 pubs and beer brands such as Varsity and Oxford Blue. The personal finance section says businesses such as restaurants and pubs can increase sales by installing cash machines. Jimmy Yeung has seen a sales uplift since he fitted a Moneybox machine in his north-west London Chinese restaurant.
The Sunday Express
ITV Digital is continuing to sell subscriptions to new customers even though its demise seems certain. Screens could soon go blank but people have continues to sign up even though it is administration and parent companies Granada and Carlton refuse to put any more money into the business.
Robin Saunders, the high-profile financier who works for WestLB, is believed to be embroiled in a bonus row with her employer. Saunders heads the principle finance division, which backs Pubmaster and Robert Breare.
