What the papers say - June 1, 2007

Richard Caring, the millionaire owner of celebrity haunt The Ivy, has sold off his Strada pizza chain for £140m, less than a month after buying a 3% stake in Carluccio's. The move has prompted speculation that he could launch a bid for the Aim-listed Italian restaurant chain. Tragus, the Café Rouge and Bella Italia company owned by the private equity firm Blackstone, is the buyer of the 55-restaurant group that includes 50 Strada restaurants and five units trading as Belgo and Bierodrome - The Guardian​

Britain's biggest pub group Punch Taverns climbed 2.8 per cent to £13.81 after Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock from "neutral" to "buy" with an increased price target of £15.30 from £12.80. Young & Co's, which owns 220 pubs in the UK, saw profits leap by a factor of 10 on a gain from selling a property where it had brewed beer for hundreds of years - The Financial Times​

The London-focused group made £46.6m on the sale of its Ram Brewery site in Wandsworth, south-west London - claimed to be the oldest brewery in England. Instead, Young's last year combined its brewing operations with Charles Wells in Bedford in a joint venture aimed at preserving its status as a vertically integrated brewery in spite of the closure of the site that began operation in the reign of Elizabeth I - The Financial Times​

Smokers forced outside by the smoking ban will be fined £80 if they are caught dropping their butts in the street. They already face a £50 penalty for lighting up in pubs, clubs or offices after the ban starts on July 1. But there will be no refuge outdoors after council litter wardens were told to get tough on people who chuck away their fag ends - The Mirror​