A story that’s developing as you read this – rumours of a new bid for Sainsbury’s by the Qatari Investment Authority have pushed up the share price almost of the supermarket by almost 9%. You can read about that here.
Elsewhere, it’s a very boozey news day, led with more bad news for drinks giant Diageo.
The Guinness brewer, currently wrestling with negative press over its plans to close the Johnnie Walker production sites north of the border, has now posted lacklustre sales – down 6% and rather worse than expected.
According to the Guardian, that’s due to distributors in North America being more cautious than last year ahead of Thanksgiving and, slightly further down the line, Christmas. The Daily Telegraph also investigates, as does the Financial Times.
The Herald (not surprisingly, for a Scottish newspaper) prefers to focus on the looming job cuts. Diageo chief executive Paul Walsh (also unsurprisingly) shows no sign of revising his plans, and these things only ever go one way in the long run.
Another drinks giant – brewer AB InBev – has moved to reduce its debt with the sale of its central and east European business, including the Staropramen brand, as The Times reports.
Punch Taverns is not having a happy time of it – the chain is writing down the value of its pubs after reporting a hefty drop in profits, as the Guardian notes in its Market Forces blog. The Times says it may offload up to 2,000 of the less profitable venues in response.
Back off the booze, the Daily Express reports (not for the first time) that drinking green tea cuts the risk of cancer. However, you’ve got to drink five cups of the stuff a day to reap any benefits, it says here, which seems a little unlikely. And the extra hours you’d lose spent using the toilet means you probably wouldn’t be gaining much in the way of joyful living overall.
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