What the Sunday papers say

The Sunday Times

• Spirit Group's £2.51bn acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle's managed pub business was the UK's second biggest private equity deal of 2003 behind Silvestor Holdings £5.23bn acquisition of Canary Wharf. The S&N Retail deal was the fifth biggest single acquisition of the year, overall.

The Mail On Sunday​

• Directors at Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries saw their pay rise by an average of 25 per cent last year despite flat profits. The biggest winner was finance director Paul Inglett, whose earnings nearly doubled from £110,000 to £218,000.

BSkyB is preparing a boardroom shake-up to appease major shareholders over the appointment of James Murdoch as chief executive of the satellite broadcaster where father Rupert is chairman.

The Sunday Telegraph​

• The UK economy will grow by 2.8 per cent in 2004, according to the Ernst & Young ITEM Club, which uses the Treasury's forecasting model.

Rocco Forte Hotels, the chain founded by Sir Rocco Forte, is forecasting a 50 per cent surge in profits at a time when the industry has been hit by its worst recession for more than a decade.

The craze for low carbohydrate eating, popularised by the Atkins diet, shows no sign of fading. But, as yet, the response of the British food industry has been resistance and even hostility. This is about to change. In an era of prohibitively tight margins, the Atkins market is growing too fast to ignore.

Reviewing its shares of 2003, the Telegraph's investor column says: "Another long-time favourite was Enterprise Inns, which we bought at 546p in February. Regrettably we sold at 823.5p, banking a 50 per cent profit, when we should have held on as the shares soared to 1,023.5p."

The Observer​

• Children are eating the equivalent of eight chocolate bars a day more than their grandparents did, and would be in far better shape if they ate Second World War rations.

Eating an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but scientists at Japan's National Food Research Institute have found that peeling one stimulates the most highly evolved section of the brain.

Sunday Express​

• Columnist Jimmy Young says a smoking ban will not happen. He writes: "The Government will continue to make nannying anti-smoking noises but do any of us believe it is going to deny itself an income of £9.3bn a year which it has to make no effort to obtain? It may confirm us as cynics but I think we're agreed on the answer."

Homeowners can expect a new year's reprieve this week as the Bank of England is tipped to keep interest rates on hold.

Sharewatch - Mitchells & Butlers: "Despite regulatory cost issues such as the minimum wage limiting profits growth next year, Goldman Sachs considers M&B a sound medium-term holding on the back of strong sales resulting from recent initiatives. Buy at 225p."

The Independent on Sunday​

• Sharewatch - Scottish & Newcastle: "In time, 2003 could prove defining year for Scottish & Newcastle. The owner of Foster's, Kronenbourg and Newcastle Brown Ale found a new chief executive, bought some businesses and flogged its retail arm for £2.51bn. With the overhaul out of the way, 2004 could prove profitable for S&N and shareholders too."

Despite the best efforts of Britain's amateur drinkers on New Year's Eve, a Latvian has taken the world record for alcohol consumption. He was found unconscious with a blood-alcohol reading of 7.22 parts per million, nearly twice the level at which death normally sets in.

More than 25 years after the Sex Discrimination Act became law, the first national audit of gender and power has revealed that although women make up nearly half the workforce, they are directors at only nine per cent of firms.

The Business​

• Leading stockmarket pundits are predicting another year of double-digit gains in 2004.

Accor, the French hotels giant, is poised to announce a £560m merger of its casino business with those of the privately held Barriere group. The deal will create France's largest casino concern, overtaking Partouche.