What the Sunday papers said

Mitchells & Butlers (M&B) is set to disappoint Robert Tchenguiz, the activist shareholder in the group who wants it to convert to a real estate investment trust (REIT), according to the Sunday Telegraph. M&B is under pressure from Tchenguiz to convert into a REIT, but the group is believed to be veering away from full REIT status and is instead understood to be looking at a 'halfway house' option, unlocking some of the value of its property assets to satisfy shareholders. - Sunday Telegraph​

Investment house Guinness Peat Group (GPG) has emerged as an investor in Suffolk brewer Adnams, reports the Sunday Times. A shareholder in the brewer for some time, GPG thinks there could be some hidden value in Adnams' "excellent pubs". GPG is also a shareholder in Young & Co. - Sunday Times​

Shares in C&C Group, which produces Magners cider, should still be worth buying, says the Sunday Telegraph, despite having risen six fold since October 2004. The Irish company is expected to report full year earnings this week up 73 per cent and rumours abound that it is to announce a significant share buyback programme. - Sunday Telegraph​

Rank Group is to sell off almost ten per cent of its bingo halls as part of its efforts to prepare for the impending smoking ban in England. In Scotland, where a smoking ban was introduced last year, Rank's bingo revenues have fallen 17 per cent. - Sunday Times​

Economists are predicting the Bank of England will raise interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point this Thursday to 5.5 per cent, reports the Sunday Express. There could also be another tightening to 5.75 per cent in July, says Philip Shaw of Investec Securities. - Sunday Express​

Britain's homeowners are bracing themselves for a fresh blow to their finances this week as the Bank of England ratchets up interest rates to their highest level for six years to tackle inflation, writes the Observer. Seven of the nine members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee will vote for a rate increase, the fourth in nine months, according to the Observer-New Star predictor. - Observer​

Independent shopkeepers have launched a stinging attack on competition regulators, accusing them of not doing enough research on the buying power of the UK's big four supermarkets, writes the Sunday Times. Meanwhile the Sunday Telegraph reports that the Competition Commission has been forced to issue subpoenas to a number of retail industry bodies - who represent suppliers to the big supermarkets - to force them to come forward with evidence for the Commission's investigation into the power of the Big Four. Suppliers have apparently been reluctant to come forward for fear of upsetting the supermarkets and losing valuable accounts.

And finally…

Climate change is set to claim one of the British pub's best-loved meals: fish and chips. A study by the World Wildlife Fund claims the combination of warmer seas and over-fishing makes a collapse of endangered north Atlantic cod stocks "extremely likely". The UK apparently consumes a third of global cod stocks and 80 per cent of European cod, mostly in batter and with chips. - Observer​