What the Sunday papers say

The Sunday Times

• Andrew Coppel, the former chief executive of Queens Moat Houses, has teamed up with Collins Stewart, on its bid for Premier Lodge, the budget chain which Spirit Group is selling.

The Mail on Sunday​

• The London club run by Lee Chapman and Leslie Ash is facing financial crisis. Accounts reveal that Teatro in the West End has lost more than £1m since it opened in 1998.

Former Punch Taverns director Tim Woodcock has teamed up with ex-Pizza Express director John Metcalfe to form Urban Dining, a £3m cash shell, to acquire restaurant businesses.

Caffe Nero is in talks to buy some of the 106 stores being closed by high street electrical retailer Dixons.

Big Food Group, operator of Booker and Iceland, is considering a late bid for Londis, the convenience store network.

The Observer​

• Columnist Richard Wachman praises Whitbread chairman John Banham for his role in insisting the leisure group focused on making its current businesses ship-shape. "It has turned around the fortunes of many of its interests, not least the ubiquitous high street Beefeater chain," gushes Wachman, somewhat prematurely.

How's this for girl power? In Norway they have passed a law forcing companies to reserve at least 40 per cent of their boardroom seats for women.

The Independent on Sunday​

• Calendar: Company news out this week includes full-year results from Whitbread on Wednesday and Jennings Brothers on Thursday.

In an operation code-named White Vineyard, Argentina arrested two Britons over a plot to smuggle to Europe £6m-worth of cocaine inside up to 10,000 wine bottles.

The Sunday Telegraph​

• Analysts expect Whitbread to announce a nine per cent lift in pre-tax profits to about £242m. Strong growth at the restuarants and fitness clubs are expected to have helped sales rise six per cent.

Two women and two men were arrested on suspicion of murder after a 23-year-old man was stabbed to death during a dispute at the Seven Stars pub in Walsall. The victim was stabbed twice in the chest.

InterContinental, the world's largest hotel chain (formerly known as Six Continents, before that, Bass) has been accused of misleading customers searching for hotels by setting up dozens of websites that look like independent travel agents but, in reality, direct customers to its own products.

The Business​

• Several high-profile candidates have spurned approaches from Coca-Cola, as the soft drinks giant struggles to hire a new chief executive by the summer, when current CEO Douglas Daft retires.