Weekend press roundup, 4-5 February

Please see below a roundup of this weekend’s newspapers: Pret a Manger, YO! Sushi and Patisserie Valerie have been included in the list of top 100 private equity-owned companies with the fastest rising profits in yesterday’s Sunday Times. The Buyout Track 100 ranks the three companies 87th, 88th and 89th respectively. The newspaper points out that Patisserie Valerie is seeing profits rise 25.55% a year, from £3.8m in 2008 to £6m in 2010. Luke Johnson’s Risk Capital Partners backed a £6m buyout of the patisserie and cafe operator in 2006. YO! Sushi, meanwhile, is seeing annual profit growth of 25.23% (2008: £4.9m, 2010: £7.7m). Chief executive Robin Rowland led a £51m secondary buyout of the backed by Quilvest Private Equity in 2008. Pret a Manger, of which Bridgepoint bought a majority share in 2008, is seeing profit growth of 25.7% (29.1m in 2008, £46.1m in 2010). Also on the list, at 71, is Fourth Hospitality, the software provider for the hospitality sector. Profits for the company are rising by 31.55% (2009: £2.2m, 2011: £3.8m); the company is owned by ECI Partners. The Sunday Times Bank to pump extra £50bn into economy The Bank of England is expected to pump another £50bn into the economy this week despite signs that Britain’s financial health may be starting to improve. Members of the Bank’s monetary policy committee (MPC) will announce on Thursday whether it will make more purchases of government bonds to boost the money supply. Weak growth in the money supply and falling inflation, together with hints from MPC members, have created the expectation of further action. Analysts said recent evidence of stronger growth, in purchasing managers’ indexes (PMIs) for the manufacturing and service sectors, was unlikely to deter the Bank of England from adding to the £75bn of asset purchases, or quantitative easing, it announced last October. The Sunday Times Vacancy at hotel giant The world’s largest hotel company could soon be looking for a new chairman. David Webster, 66, who has held the post at Intercontinental Hotels Group for eight years, is expected to stand down, senior industry sources said. The Sunday Times Labour calls for 5% cut in VAT Labour is calling on Chancellor George Osborne to slash VAT by five per cent in a bid to boost growth. Such a cut would mean reducing VAT from 20 per cent to 15 per cent. Labour temporarily cut VAT from 17.5% to 15% in December 2008. Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna said: “Labour would boost the economy with a temporary one-year five per cent reduction in VAT across the board. Not only would this help high street, it would also boost families and pensioners. Labour is also proposing a national insurance break for small business owners taking on extra workers.” The Sunday Express Stratford luring shoppers away from high streets Retail sales at many stores in Westfield shopping centre in Stratford are exceeding expectations as business is “sucked away” from London’s high streets. Both Marks & Spencer and Foot Locker have seen their stores in the shopping centre outperform their other capital-based outlets. It is understood that sales at Dixons’ Westfield store have been nearly double initial forecasts. Rahul Sharma, managing director of investment firm Neev Capital, said: “Westfield is sucking business away from elsewhere in London.” The Sunday Express Fears of internet meltdown from Olympics surge British businesses are being warned that they could lose their internet connections during the Olympics due to a surge in the number of people going online at key times. The demand could be such that internet companies might be forced to ration access, according to official advice. The warning, in the Cabinet Office’s official advice, Preparing your Business for the Games, says that the country’s telecoms system may be unable to cope with demand to access the internet in certain areas. Businesses are being encouraged to offer staff flexible working arrangements to try to ease the pressure. The Observer Two glasses of wine a day ‘triples cancer risk' Drinking two large glasses of wine triples the risk of developing mouth cancer, a government campaign will warn. Television adverts which start running this evening will say that drinking “just a little bit more” than the recommended daily limits for alcohol increases the risk of serious health problems. The Sunday Telegraph Socialite is now pulling pints As one of the best-known members of the beau monde, Tamara Beckworth makes an unlikely Bet Lynch. The daughter of the property tycoon Peter Beckworth has, however, become the landlady of a traditional London boozer. “Stranger things have happened,” Beckworth says of her pulling pints behind the bar of the Imperial Arms in Fulham. The Sunday Telegraph Cable’s £1.5k to take on apprentices Business Secretary Vince Cable will this week offer small firms a £1,500 “sweetener” if they take on an apprentice. It coincides with the fifth annual Apprenticeship Week, starting tomorrow, and is a desperate bid to help kick-start Britain’s economy as it teeters on the brink of recession. Under the plans, small firms who take on their first apprentice this year will be able to apply for an incentive payment of £1,500. The Sunday Mirror Surrey is start-up capital of recession-era Britain Surrey has more ‘recession-era’ start-ups turning over £100,000 or more than any other region. Research by Barclays shows that one in seven firms launched in Surrey in the past three years are turning over more than £100,000, compared with a national average of one in 10. The Mail on Sunday Table for 1…and, no, I’m not gay A trendy restaurant has infuriated diners booking online…by asking them if they’re gay. Customers using the Italian venue’s website had to state their title after giving their name and the time they wanted a table. And the options that came up were Dr, Mr, Mrs, Miss…or Gay. “I was stunned,” said diner Matthew Hart, 32, who visited Al Forna in Kingston, South West London, last week. Manager Fabio Fruste last night blamed a glitch in the software. The Sunday Mirror Portas offers £1m prize for high streets Failing towns across Britain have been invited to pitch a recovery plan to Mary Portas for the chance to gain access to £1m of taxpayers’ money. The move follows the release last year of the television presenter’s Government-commissioned report into the future of the country’s high streets. The review concluded that town centres had reached “crisis point” and it outlined 28 recommendations to stop the decline. Now 12 towns will have a chance to share £1m to help revitalise their “unloved and unused: high streets, Miss Portas has said. The Telegraph, Saturday Pay up and play the game, or we will all lose In an article in the Times on Saturday, Richard Scudamore, chief executive of the Premier League, criticises the “pirates” who screen football in pubs “illegally” - he puts this in the category of “digital theft”. He writes: “Football has become just the kind of global export that the Government is keen to grow for the good of the whole economy. All these benefits could be at risk if pirates are allowed to operate unchecked. That is why we send staff to drink half a pint in pubs suspected of illegal broadcasting and why we have pursued this matter through the courts.” The number of companies going bust in England and Wales has risen by more than 7 per cent, according to the Insolvency Service. It has said that there were 4,260 compulsory liquidations and creditors’ voluntary liquidations in the fourth quarter of last year. Personal insolvencies dropped by 5.6 per cent to 28,973, the lowest level since 2008. The Times, Saturday Call for fund fees ‘labelling’ Private investors will be able to compare the full cost of investing in different funds, under two new proposals for improving fee disclosure published this week. But the body representing fund managers has said any changes would have to be voluntary – and risked adding to costs. On Tuesday, wealth management firm SCM Private launched a campaign for “True and Fair” fund labelling, with backing from the consumer group Which?, Lord McFall, the former Treasury select committee chairman, and Tim Jones, chief executive of the National Employee Savings Trust pension scheme. SCM is calling for the adoption of a simple label on fund literature, listing all fees taken for managing and distributing a fund – plus the “all-in cost”, depending on which sales channel is used to buy it. FT Weekend