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InBev is considering making a $46bn (£23.2bn) bid for rival brewer Anheuser-Busch. The Belgian brewer, which makes Stella Artois, is arranging finance for a potential deal, according to the Financial Times. Anheuser's chief executive August Busch IV resisted an informal bid from InBev last October. Talk of an offer has propelled Anheuser-Busch's shares to their highest level in three years.

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The Co-operative Group, which is currently in talks to buy Somerfield, is talking to other retailers about selling larger Somerfield stores if it successfully buys the chain, reports the Daily Telegraph. The society had been approached by Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda and Morrisons. "They are all looking to see which stores the Co-op doesn't want," an unnamed supermarket executive told the paper.

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Sugar manufacturer Tate & Lyle is considering selling its pensions scheme, says The Sunday Times. The company has been conducting an unofficial auction of the £870m scheme, with Rothesay Life, Pension Corporation, Paternoster and Legal & General said to be interested. Tate & Lyle has ploughed £40m into the scheme in each of the past two years.

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Farmers are abandoning environmentally friendly schemes because of soaring food prices, reports The Observer. Some two-thirds of farmers who signed up to government-backed schemes had failed to renew them when contracts expired, citing high commodity prices and 'disenchantment', according to a National Farmers' Union survey.

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An ingredient found naturally in cocoa could help diabetes and ward off the threat of heart disease, according to research cited in the Daily Mail. Scientists from Aachen University Hospital in Germany found drinking cocoa improved patients' arteries, with blood flow through formerly restricted vessels improved by 30% after one month.

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