What the Sunday papers said

Avebury Taverns is to be put up for sale for up to £250m. The group, which owns about 450 pubs after selling an estate of non-core sites to Admiral Taverns last week, has appointed specialist PC Hansen & Co to explore a possible sale of the business. Enterprise Inns, Punch Taverns, as well as smaller players such as Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries and Robert Tchenguiz's R20 investment vehicle are likely to be interested - The Sunday Times ​

Constellation Brands and Brown-Forman, the American drinks companies planning a counterbid for Allied Domecq, are on track to deliver an offer in the next few weeks. The consortium is understood to be comfortable with the July 29 deadline set by the Takeover Panel, with financing no longer a major hurdle - The Mail on Sunday ​

Former Laurel Pub Company boss Ian Payne is thought to be planning to snap up the Chicago Rock Cafe and Jumpin Jaks brands put up for sale by Luminar and merge them with nightclub chain Po Na Na. Mr Payne is working with private equity firm TDR Capital - The Sunday Express ​

Private equity firms, believed to be Permira and Apax, have approached Duke Street Capital, owner of fitness chain Esporta, to make a £700m swoop on the Whitbread-owned David Lloyd business. Insiders say a deal will be done by September - The Sunday Express ​

Tony Blair has been accused of 'sexing-up' the threat of terrorism to gain support for ID cards. The security services believe they have gone a long way towards tackling the danger from Islamic extremists, but Mr Blair and home secretary Charles Clarke have continued to talk up the threat - The Sunday Express ​

Meanwhile, experts at the London School of Economics estimate that the true cost of the ID cards scheme could top £18bn, more than triple the official estimate. Because the Treasury has insisted the scheme must be self-financing, this could make the average cost of a card as high as £300 to every adult - The Observer ​

UK casino firms are rolling out plans to build up to 100 new casinos. Gambling bosses are trying to take advantage of a loophole and build so-called 'old-style casinos' with just eight slot machines and £500 jackpots while they wait for the new Gambling Act to come into force - The Observer ​

Temperatures in France soared last week and the faces of the country's brewers broke into unfamilar smiles - beer sales are in long term decline and the French drink less beer than almost any nation in Europe. Heineken France, with a 33 per cent share of the market, is in talks with unions about job cuts among its 6,000 strong workforce - The Business ​

Liverpool's shock comeback in the Champions League final has led to the last-gasp survival of its relationship with shirt sponsor Carlsberg. Talks to extend the 12-year sponsorship deal had all but broken down, but after beating AC Milan to become European champions on Wednesday, Liverpool will this week announce a three-year extension thought to be worth around £15m - The Independent on Sunday​