What the Sunday papers said
The Sunday Times
The number of companies in trouble increased by seven per cent last month, according to the Sunday Times / Mandis Agony Index. The index, which measures corporate distress from a database of 100,000 firms, showed a 7.3 per cent rise for June compared with May. The index tracks redundancies, profit warnings, weak trading statements, plant closures, cuts in capital spending and restructurings.
The future of the booze cruise may be decided this week when Hoverspeed, the fast-ferry operator, mounts a legal challenge to Customs & Excise. The ferry company wants a declaration that Customs' method of policing cross-Channel shopping is illegal, and is seeking damages for disruption to business. Customs is confiscating up to 1,000 cars a month as part of a drive to combat alleged smuggling of cheap alcohol and tobacco.
While the Sunday Times' City diary applauds Tim Martin's anti-euro stance, it is less complimentary about JD Wetherspoon's geographical knowledge of the UK and Northern Ireland. The company lists a number of towns in the wrong counties. "Maybe his cartographer had partaken of one too many of the black stuff," the column concludes.
The Weekend FT
Greene King, which three weeks ago agreed to pay £67m for most of the Morrells pub estate, lifted underlying profits last year by 10 per cent. Shareholders should sleep easy despite turbulent markets, but this management is running a marathon - not a sprint.
Shares in Bulmer hit a 12-month low on Friday after the cidermaker warned profits, announced this week, would be below expectations. The warning followed earlier admissions, in December and February, that the company would fail to meet profits forecasts.
The Observer
A food fight has broken out in the boardroom of Fish! just days after the restaurant group went into administration. Founder and chairman Tony Allan says he has lost £16m as shares in Fish have collapsed in the past year. Allan has blamed the man he appointed as chief executive, Paul Gilligan. "He's over expanded, got poor sites and opened seven restaurants after September 11. After September 11 everything changed but we didn't." Two months ago the company gave an upbeat assessment at its AGM. Now it has sold four units, and the administrator Robson Rhodes, is trying to find a buyer.
Carlton and Granada, the ITV companies which failed last week to win back their digital television licence, rejected a chance to join the BBC's winning consortium. Director General Greg Dyke wanted them as members with BSkyB, and transmission group Crown Castle.
The Mail on Sunday
Tony Blair faces a growing revolt over his new 'softly softly' approach to cannabis. Plans to be announced this week to cut penalties for marijuana use are being opposed by Ministers, concerned any reduction would lead to a new drugs epidemic.
Management buyouts have plunged in value by more than half during the past 12 months. They totalled £13bn, against £28bn for the previous 12 months, according to a report from Nottingham-based Centre for Management Buy-Out Research.
Fears of a fresh round of tax rises were growing after warnings of a £10bn Treasury black hole. The stock market crash will make it impossible for Chancellor Gordon Brown to meet his economic targets, leaving a serious short fall in tax revenue, new research reveals.
The Sunday Express
Shares in Urbium, the demerged bar and nightclub business of Chorion, are worth a look. Heavy spending will increase debt, a potential concern if interest rates rise significantly, but cashflow and return on capital are strong. A long-term bet at 10.75p.
Lapdancing is failing to raise profits at Stringfellows nightclub in West London - the company's latest set of accounts shows a £402,000 loss before tax on sales of £7.8m. This was for the 18 months to June last year, compared with £675,000 profits on sales of £5.3m for the year previous.
The Sunday Telegraph
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