'Deal to buy Regent Inns "weeks away"'

Sun Capital Partners, the private equity firm which bought the Lee Cooper jeans brand in 2005, is one of two companies in detailed talks to acquire Regent, owner of the Jongleurs comedy clubs, Old Orleans restaurants and the Walkabout chain of Australian-themed bars. It faces competition to buy Regent from Brook Leisure, a privately owned nightclub operator. Negotiations are said to be progressing well against the backdrop of tough times for the pub and bar industry, yet a deal is thought to be still weeks away. - Sunday Times​

Until its acquisition of Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) formally goes through this week, Heineken declines to comment on future plans, but most industry analysts expect S&N's UK managing director Jeremy Blood to be named as the firm's new head. "There is a feeling that if it ain't broke, don't fix it," said one analyst. "Jeremy has run the UK side of the business and has done a very good job. We expect that to continue." - Scotland On Sunday​

Karen Jones, former chief executive of the Spirit pubs group, is an investor in Lucky Voice, the karaoke bar chain founded by Martha Lane Fox. Marks & Spencer chief executive Sir Stuart Rose is also a backer. - Sunday Times​

A leading expert on drugs and alcohol addiction has been banned from the road after he was caught drink driving twice. University academic Rowdy Yates, 57, was found to be double the limit. Only four months before, officers had breath-tested him at twice the limit at his house, minutes after being tipped off about his dodgy driving. - Sunday Mail​

"How can we live in a world where you cannot light a cigarette in a pub but it is perfectly acceptable for a virtually naked woman - sorry to be crude, but this IS crude - to bring a clothed man to climax in public?", writes Mail On Sunday columnist Suzanne Moore. "Partly this is to do with changes in the Licensing Act of 2003 that made such licences relatively easy to obtain. But the larger change is cultural. The owners of my local pub are promising that opening a strip bar in a residential area will not attract any undesirables to the area as we already have them! Am I being a 'Nimby' because I don't want a strip club in my own backyard? Yes. But I don't want one in anyone else's backyard either." - Mail On Sunday​