'Punch Taverns set for showdown with its bondholders'
Punch Taverns chief executive Ian Dyson is paving the way for talks to get big concessions from the group's bondholders or hand them the keys to thousands of under-performing pub properties. Dyson shook up his corporate advisers a couple of weeks ago, with Citigroup replacing Bank of America Merrill Lynch, while specialist broker Numis is understood to have been quietly dropped. Sources also say that Dyson has hired private equity group Blackstone to advise him on the looming clash with the bondholders. Punch's toxic cocktail of mountainous debt and tough trading has seen 95 per cent slashed from the value of its shares since the onset of the credit crunch. - Scotsman
The government is considering forcing tobacco companies to package their cigarettes in plain brown wrappers in a bid to de-glamorise smoking and stop young people taking up the habit. The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, is investigating the viability of introducing what would be one of the most radical public health measures ever implemented in the UK. Senior doctors welcomed the potential ban on colours and logos on packets and said it could prove as effective as the 2007 public smoking ban. However, ministers are likely to face a legal challenge if they go ahead. - Guardian
Mitchells & Butlers (M&B), the pubs group which was plunged into a boardroom power struggle earlier this year, is expected to reinstate its dividend. Billionaire currency dealer Joe Lewis led the boardroom coup at the company which has traded strongly over last summer to give it the firepower for a payout to shareholders. Together with a raft of pub sales to restore its balance sheet, the company is now poised to make the first payment since the dividend was scrapped in 2008. The City consensus is that M&B will on Tuesday announce a robust rise in annual pre-tax profit to £166m, against £134m last time. Earnings per share are expected to have jumped to 29.4p from 23.6p. - Scotsman
An idea thought up by a pub owner could help cut down on hospital infections. Hospitals are rolling out a new website where loved ones can pay "virtual visits" to patients instead of coming into the building. Justvisiting.com - which lets patients "meet" visitors in a virtual room and will soon have a video feature - has been set up with NHS and Lottery funding. Pub owner Paul Smith and ex-NHS manager Jeff Cummings came up with the idea after Jeff used Paul's pub website to swap messages with his father, who was in hospital with cancer. Jeff, from Gateshead, said: "It is an easy way to let them know you are thinking of them." - Daily Mirror
And finally…
Royal stag Prince William will go on a pub crawl of some of Britain's biggest cities. Party-loving Prince Harry has been put in charge of planning the stag night and has recruited their prankster pal Guy Pelly, 29, to help. Pell arranges hospitality at trendy London nightclubs and is planning to whisk William on a whirlwind tour of the nation he will one day rule. - Daily Star
