What the Sunday papers said
A group of institutional investors is plotting to arrange the sale of Ultimate Leisure from under the feet of its management. Following revelations of share sales by an Ultimate director and the chairman's brothers just weeks before a profit warning, Scottish Widows, Artemis, Gartmore and Standard Life, the four biggest shareholders, secretly approached the company's broker and asked it to sell the business after losing confidence in the management - The Sunday Times
Noble House Leisure boss Robert Breare is to become executive chairman of Bank Restaurant Group (BRG), the quoted dining chain. Des Gunewardena, chief executive of Conran Holdings, will also join the BRG board as a non-executive director - The Sunday Times
Pubs group Barracuda has been put on the market by venture capital owner PPM Ventures with a price tag of at least £100m. Likely buyers for the 135 pub business are believed to include rival venture capital firms Hg Capital, Electra Partners, and Barclays Private Equity - The Sunday Express
Drinks companies are being accused of cashing in on the current low-carb diet craze by targeting weight-conscious young women with special wines and spirits which have a reduced calorie content. Anti-alcohol charities say new "low-cal" drinks such as half-sugar Bacardi Breezer could fuel abuse because they do not necessarily contain less alcohol. Other new waistline-friendly products now on the market include Chardonnay One.4 and Merlot One.6, marketed by Brown-Forman - The Independent on Sunday
More than 25 years after Ladbrokes was forced out of the casino business over a betting scandal, its owner Hilton group has regained its licence. The hotels and bookmaking giant was granted a gaming licence after group executives were deemed to be 'fit and proper persons' to again run casinos - The Mail on Sunday Global Draw, a manufacturer of betting machines set up just seven years ago, tops the league of Britain's 100 fastest-growing private companies. The company has seen sales of its fixed-odds betting terminals increase from £472,000 to £32m in the past four years. In 2003/4 sales at the company grew by more than 300 per cent - The Sunday Telegraph
