What the Sunday papers said
The Sunday Telegraph
- It is time for Mitchells & Butlers boss Tim Clarke to decide if he is the hunter or the hunted, according to the Telegraph.
Mr Clarke plans to make a play for the £2.5bn Scottish & Retail managed pub estate. But he will be competing against a host of private equity buyers and knows that if he loses, Mitchells & Butlers could be the next target.
The Sunday Express
- American tycoon Donald Trump is in talks to open a casino in London's West End. Trump has built a £6bn property-and-gaming group in America and wants to expand to the UK.
The Sunday Times
- London's Earls Court arena is set to be transformed into a Las Vegas-style gaming mecca, with slot machines, theatres and hotels. Five different parties have approached the exhibition centre's owners, interested in a joint venture if Britain's gaming laws are relaxed.
Income tax would have to rise 5p in every pound - equivalent to a £16 billion tax hike - to smooth the path to the euro according to the Treasury.
As ultra trendy hotels they are meant to be icons of London coolness. But debts at the Sanderson and St Martins Lane hotels have reached £100m as celebrity guests stay away and fewer tourists visit the capital.
The group behind London's Savoy hotel group is in talks to buy the continental hotels owned by Le Meridien, the troubled international hotelier.
A survey by Barclays shows that Bournemouth is the best place in the UK to start a business. The seaside town spawned 61 new businesses per 10,000 people for the first three months of 2003. Other towns in the top ten include Blackpool, the Isle of Wight and Southend. Topping the worst was Stoke-on-Trent, followed by Hartlepool and Walsall.
The Observer
- Trials on humans to test the health risk of genetically-modified crops should be carried out over the next decade, according to former environment minister Michael Meacher.
The Independent on Sunday
- Rumours continue to abound on the other side of the world that Foster's is to make a move of struggling Australian winemaker Southcorp, home of the Penfolds and Lindemans brands.
Robin Saunders, the female financier who backs Pubmaster, has secured up to £800m from City institutions for a bid for WestLB's principal finance unit, which she has run fro five years. She has fallen out with her German employers over a loss-making deal.
The world's first resort for the overweight is set to open. At Freedom Paradise in Cancun, Mexico, guests will find special reinforced beach chairs made from tree trunks, 4ft wide loungers and dining chairs with 26in seats.
Cheese can be as addictive as morphine according to US doctor Neal Bernard. Cheese contains high levels of casein which, during digestion, produces "morphine-like opiate compounds".
The Business
No industry-related news
The Mail on Sunday
No industry-related news
