Living Room and Est, Est, Est restaurants up for sale
Tim Bacon is set to reap a windfall from a planned £40m sale of his bar and restaurant company Living Ventures. As well as 13 Living Room sites, the company also owns the Est, Est, Est  restaurant chain and the steakhouse format  Bar & Grill. The business is 40% owned by The Restaurant Group, the quoted leisure company behind leading chains such as Frankie & Benny’s and Garfunkel’s. – Sunday Times, 13 August

Rail Gourmet wins GNER catering contract
East Coast train operator GNER has signed a four-year contract with Rail Gourmet. The deal follows a six-month review of GNER's catering logistics business, including a tendering process, which attracted stiff competition from catering suppliers across Europe. The new catering contract includes the restaurant, buffet and at-seat trolley service on GNER's trains, covering the supply of about 1,000 product lines a year. – Yorkshire Post, 12 August

Auberge and Giardino restaurant chain put on the market
Town Centre Restaurants, which runs the Auberge and Giardino café brands, is being put up for sale by its owner, the HBoS banking group. The chain, which runs more than 50 cafés and restaurants, was taken off the Alternative Investment Market in 2003 when HBoS backed a management buyout. It is expected to have a price tag of about £40m. – Mail on Sunday, 13 August

Decision day on sale of FTSE catering equipment firm 
The drawn-out bidding war over UK-based commercial kitchen equipment group Enodis, whose brands include Garland, Frymaster and Moorwood Vulcan, is expected to come to a head tomorrow. Middleby, one of Enodis’s American rivals, is this weekend deciding whether to make a fresh approach to the UK company. It has until midday tomorrow to make a move. – Sunday Times, 13 August

Irish billionaire buys Sheraton hotel
Irish billionaire Seán Quinn has acquired the Sheraton Hotel Krakow, in Poland, for €45m (£30.3m). The 232-room hotel, completed in April 2004, was sold by a consortium of companies, including hotel operators Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide and other shareholders. – Irish Independent, 12 August

Accor tipped as buyer of Scandic Hotels
Accor is believed to be among the parties interested in Scandic Hotels, the Nordic operator put up for sale last week by Hilton Hotels Corporation of America with a £600m-plus price tag. – The Times, 12 August

Latest terror threat will not affect tourism
The British tourism industry is optimistic that the heightened security associated with last week's terror alert will not harm the economy or the tourist industry. Tom Wright, the chief executive of VisitBritain said visitors and businesses were becoming increasingly stoical about the threat of international terrorism. – Sunday Telegraph, 13 August

Club chain may float on Stock Exchange
Entrepreneur Peter Stringfellow is considering floating his business on the London Stock Exchange, two months after opening a new club in London’s Wardour Street. – The Business, 13 August

By Bob Gledhill

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