Morrisons is facing a bill worth tens of millions of pounds to offload its struggling convenience store business, according to reports today.

The Guardian writes that Morrisons will be lumbered with a liability of as much as £100m from any sale because there is a parent company guarantee on the rental agreement for the stores. This guarantee means that Morrisons will remain on the hook for the leases on the stores even after selling them. If the new owner closes stores, the supermarket group will have to pay the outstanding rent. (The Guardian)

Carlsberg’s new chief executive was in “sober mood” yesterday, according to The Times, as he kicked off his tenure with a “severe profit warning”. Cees ’t Hart, who took the reins from Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen in June, said that the company would have to “make tough decisions” after its continuing Russian hangover was exacerbated by a slump in trading in western Europe (The Times £). The Mail said he blamed the geopolitical turmoil in Ukraine and the poor European weather for the sales slump. (The Daily Mail)

Kirin, the Japanese brewer, has become the latest international company to bet on the economic prospects of Burma after taking a $560 million stake in the country’s biggest brewery. The company announced yesterday that it had acquired a 55 per cent stake in Myanmar Brewery from Fraser and Neave, the Singapore-based food and drink and publishing combine. (The Times £)

Russian authorities have launched a probe into French hypermarket chain Auchan, making it the latest western multinational to fall foul of Moscow, writes the FT. Since mid-June, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer watchdog, has been conducting “systemic checks” of Auchan’s 32 stores in the Moscow region to ensure they complied with Russia’s sanitation laws. (The Financial Times £).

The Australian wine company behind Penfolds and Wolf Blass went some way to justifying its rejection of two private equity suitors last year after bouncing back into the black. Treasury Wine Estates, which was spun out of the former Foster’s brewing empire in 2011, turned a A$100.9m (£47.2m) loss into a net profit of A$77.6m in the year to the end of June amid growing demand in Asia and heavy cost-cutting. (The Times £)

Imperial Tobacco’s otherwise good results in the past three quarters were held back by the deteriorating political and security situation in Iraq. Iraq accounts for just 5% of group volumes but Imperial Tobacco, the world’s fourth-largest international tobacco maker by market share, said falling sales in the war-torn country were to blame for a third of an overall 6% decline in underlying group volumes in the nine months to June 30. (The Financial Times £)

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