Richard Caring buys Soho House - For more hospitality stories, see what the weekend papers say

Richard Caring buys Soho House
Richard Caring has pulled off a £105m deal to buy a majority stake in Soho House, the luxury private-members’ club group with 15,000 members worldwide. He is understood to have bought out 28 minority investors including television stars Ant and Dec, former BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, and restaurateur Hani Farsi, Soho House founder Nick Jones has boosted his stake in the business from about 13% to 20% and stays on chief executive. HBOS is believed to have provided a £130m credit facility to help take the group global. It has already signed deals to add venues in Los Angeles and Miami to its sole foreign outpost in New York, and plans more in Chicago, Berlin and Istanbul with Tokyo, Shanghai, Cairo and Sydney also within its sights. – The Sunday Times, 20 January

D&D London increases sales by 25% in last quarter of 2007
D&D London – formerly known as Conran Restaurants - has bucked the economic gloom by reporting a 25% hike in sales in the three months to December and a 2.5% rise in like-for-like sales during the same period. Nevertheless, this was significantly down on the record 13% underlying growth it achieved over the same perio of 2006. The group’s best –forming restaurants over the festive period included Coq D’Argent, Paternoster, Orrery and the Bluebird. The group, which last year bought Image restaurants, plans at least one new location in London this year and is considering plans for a second Paris venue. – The Times, 19 January

Trio of buyers for Pret
Pret A Manger, the sandwich bar chain that is 33% owned by McDonald’s, is expected to receive takeover bids from three private equity firms next week. The anticipated bids from Bridgepoint, Advent International and Morgan Stanley are anticipated to be up to £350, some £50m below the £400m-plus goal. The chain last year abandoned plans to list in the hope of attracting a higher price through auction. – The Times, 19 January

French ‘Jamie Oliver’ denies slur on British inspiration
French chef Cyril Lignac has denied web reports that he has dismissed Jamie Oliver as a “young bloke who makes nosh”. Lignac’s career has closely mirrored Oliver’s. He became famous in France in 2005 in a TV series, Oui Chef! where he trained disadvantaged youngsters to become chefs and in he showed how to  make school meals more nutritious in Vive la cantine. Both were inspired by Jamie’s Kitchen in 2002 and Jamie’s School Dinners in 2005. Lignac’s restaurant in the 15th arrondissement of Paris is called Le Quinzieme, or Fifteenth, a close echo of Oliver’s Fifteen in Cornwall – Independent on Sunday, 20 January

S&N buyers say they won’t pay the final dividend
Carlsberg and Heineken have confirmed that their revised bid of 800p per share for Edinburgh-based Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) will not include the brewers’ final dividend, which means investors will reap £140m less than they were expected. Analysts had expected the Continental brewers to pay a dividend of 15p. It means that the 20p increase tabled last week by the buyers, from 780p to 800p, was in effect an increase of just 5p. S&N, which a day earlier said it would seek the dividend in addition to the offer price, appeared to have accepted the turn-around. – The Independent, 19 January

Japanese firms join melee for S&N
Japanese brewing groups Asahi and Kirin have emerged as potential counter-bidders for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), alongside a US-Belgian consortium of Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch and InBev. S&N is currently in talks with Carlsberg and Heineken after they upped their offer to 800p (valuing the company at £7.8b) in the face of a deadline for a firm offer this coming Thursday. If the deal goes ahead, Heineken would take control of the UK business (becoming the country’s biggest brewer), along with Western Europe and India, while Carlsberg would take on China, France and Russia. The rivals are expected to pounce once they have seen the Heineken/Carlsberg terms and offer price. S&N has already held tentative talks with Asahi, a Tokyo-based group with sales of £7b.  Kirin, which plans to become twice as large, is also seen as a likely gatecrasher on the Heinken/Carlsbert deal. – Scotland on Sunday, 20 January

By Angela Frewin

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