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Leisure 1996
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The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
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Carlson, the US travel group, is said to be discussing the acquisition of AT Mays, the chain of 97 travel shops, from Inspirations. 23-Dec-1996 Newcastle United Football Club is planning a stock exchange flotation next spring, and is likely to be valued at up to £180m. 20-Dec-1996 Newcastle United Football Club has announced plans for a £65m football stadium, and will also redevelop its existing stadium into a commercial leisure centre at a cost of £25m. 20-Dec-1996 Airtours is linking up with Carnival Corp, its main shareholder, to launch a £181m bid for Costa Cruciere, the Italian cruise line, in order to benefit from the expected rapid growth in the Mediterranean cruise market. 20-Dec-1996 The government-backed UK Sports Council has selected Wembley as the site for the new national stadium, which will receive £200m of lottery funding, while Manchester will get £60m for a 60,000 capacity stadium. 18-Dec-1996 Kunick, the amusement machines company, has acquired a 50% stake in Bell-Fruit Manufacturing for £3.4m, in a joint bid with Gauselmann of Germany. 18-Dec-1996 Bass is selling 61 Holiday Inns in North America to Bristol Hotel Company for $391m, in a deal which will see it acquire a 36% stake in Bristol. 17-Dec-1996 Granada Group is planning to expand the Meridien hotel chain, doubling the number of rooms to 50,000, partly by seeking management contracts offering packages of services such as restaurant concepts and health facilities. 17-Dec-1996 Crown Leisure, the coin-operated amusement equipment company, is to raise £5m in an institutional placing in order to fund expansion and repay debt. 17-Dec-1996 Birmingham City Football Club is planning to join the Alternative Investment Market in February, in order to raise £5m for new players and stadium development. 13-Dec-1996 Southampton Football Club is being acquired by Secure Retirement, the retirement homes builder, in a reverse takeover that values the club at £9m and will result in a stock market quotation. 11-Dec-1996 Bass is looking to sell about 81 Holiday Inns in North America, in a deal with Bristol Hotel Company which is thought to be worth about £300m. 10-Dec-1996 Greenalls has sold six US hotels to Shaner Hotel of Pennsylvania for £14m. 07-Dec-1996 Betting shops are linking up to launch a rival to the National Lottery later this month. 06-Dec-1996 The government is proposing measures which will allow bingo operators to advertise in cinemas and on television and radio. 03-Dec-1996 Club Partners International, the operator of golf clubs and country clubs, is in discussions with a number of prospective buyers. 03-Dec-1996 London is to run a £6m campaign to promote tourism, expected to be funded by £1.5m from the Department of National Heritage, £1.5m from the British Tourist Authority, and the balance from the private sector. 30-Nov-1996 Paramount is preparing a £2.6m rights issue to fund the refurbishment of some of its 123 pubs. 30-Nov-1996 Rank Group has scrapped a £30m plan to convert the Trump Castle hotel and casino in Atlantic City into the Hard Rock theme. 29-Nov-1996 Eldridge Pope is planning to expand aggressively next year, converting a further 7 pubs to its Fireside Inns format and adding two new pubs in London. 27-Nov-1996 First Choice Holidays has agreed a 5-year agency deal with Viajes Barcelo, the Spanish travel company, in which Barcelo will acquire Viajes Elena, the First Choice subsidiary. 25-Nov-1996 Stakis is planning to buy the Maybury Roadhouse in Edinburgh from Scottish & Newcastle for £2.5m, in order to run it as a casino. 21-Nov-1996 Camelot is to launch a midweek version of the National Lottery on February 5. 20-Nov-1996 Gateshead council is planning a £100m arts complex by the River Tyne which would require Lottery funding as well as government and private-sector finance, and create 700 jobs. 19-Nov-1996 English Heritage has applied for £41m of funds from the Millennium Commission for the £83m transformation of the Stonehenge site. 15-Nov-1996 Regent Inns is planning to open 14 more pubs before next July, and is progressing with an additional 41 sites. 14-Nov-1996 Discovery Inns is planning to open a further 7 pubs in the next 12 months, and expects to raise up to £30m from a share placing next month. 14-Nov-1996 The government is proposing further deregulation of casinos, which will allow limited advertising, more flexible membership requirements and more locations for them to operate. 13-Nov-1996 Airtours is setting up a 50:50 joint venture with Emerson Holdings to build a timeshare resort in Orlando. 13-Nov-1996 Crown Leisure, the coin-operated amusement equipment concern, is planning a listing on the London Stock Exchange in order to raise funds for debt-reduction and acquisitions. 12-Nov-1996 Regal Hotel Group is linking up with Carlson Companies of the US which will see it convert about 20 of its hotels to the Country Inns and Suites name and launch the Carlson brand in the UK. 12-Nov-1996 Parkwood Holdings, the leisure service provider, is planning a flotation in order to raise £6m for organic growth and possible acquisitions. 11-Nov-1996 The UK package holiday industry is facing an investigation by the Monopolies & Mergers Commission following complaints by smaller independent companies that larger groups that link tour operators with travel agents are anti-competitive. 08-Nov-1996 Camelot has created a new subsidiary called National Lottery Enterprises, which will license the National Lottery brand to consumer goods companies in return for 50% of the proceeds. 04-Nov-1996 Deep Sea Leisure, the specialist in aquarium visitor attractions, is raising £3.2m with a placing on the Alternative Investment Market in order to fund the construction of the Cheshire Oaks Aquarium. 31-Oct-1996 LA Leisure, the health and fitness club group, is planning to raise about £3m from a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market. 30-Oct-1996 Old English Pub Company has bought four freehold pub restaurants and hotels in Rutland, Norfolk, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. 25-Oct-1996 Principal Hotels is to drop plans for a £110m flotation due to the decline in interest from investors for hotel stocks. 25-Oct-1996 Whitbread is to place its Keg chain of 81 North American restaurants on the market. 25-Oct-1996 Saga Holidays has bought the 620-berth Gripsholm liner from Cunard for £12m. 24-Oct-1996 The government is easing restrictions on casinos, allowing them to serve alcohol until at least 2am and allowing new members to start playing within one day of applying for membership. 22-Oct-1996 Discovery Inns, the pubs chain, is planning to raise at least £20m in a stock exchange listing to fund expansion. 22-Oct-1996 Sunderland Football Club is planning a stock exchange flotation this year, expected to value it at £30m. 21-Oct-1996 A £110m science and technology centre is being planned in Birmingham with the backing of the Millennium Commission and lottery money, which will include a R&D centre, an education centre and a tourist attraction based on the theme of discovery. 18-Oct-1996 PizzaExpress is to acquire 32 of its remaining franchised pizza outlets, funded by a share issue which will raise £25m. 17-Oct-1996 Jurys Hotel Group is to build a 168-room Jurys Inn in Pentonville Road, London, and a 151-room Inn in Limerick, Ireland. 17-Oct-1996 Inntrepreneur Pub Company is being confronted with a large number of lawsuits from tenants of its pubs who are complaining about high rents and high beer prices. 16-Oct-1996 Whitbread is said to be interested in acquiring BrightReasons, the owner of the Pizzaland and Bella Pasta restaurant chains which was recently put up for sale. 16-Oct-1996 Airtours, the UK tour operator, has set up Sunquest Holdings in Los Angeles, in order to sell budget package holidays to Californians. 12-Oct-1996 Fitness First, the health club operator, has raised £8m in a share placement and has plans to open three more clubs in early 1997. 11-Oct-1996 Glasgow Rangers Football Club is planning to build a hotel outside its stadium, funded by a share placement worth up to £25m. 09-Oct-1996 Millennium & Copthorne Hotels is acquiring the Britannia Hotel in central London from Inter-Continental Hotels & Resorts for £81m. 09-Oct-1996 BrightReasons, the chain of 180 restaurants, is up for sale, with PizzaExpress and My Kinda Town thought to be interested. 07-Oct-1996 Rank Organisation is in discussions to convert Atlantic City's Trump Castle hotel and casino into a themed Hard Rock hotel and casino. 04-Oct-1996 Inspirations, the package holiday group, has seen its share price fall to an all-time low as it warned that it faces costs of up to £10m following flight delays caused by late delivery of aircraft to its Caledonian Airways operation. 04-Oct-1996 Virgin Group is planning to build the UK's biggest cinema complex in Leeds, with 5,000 seats and 20 screens. 03-Oct-1996 European Leisure, the discos and snooker halls group, is to raise £11m from a rights issue in order to fund the acquisition and development of a further 20 theme bars and American pool lounges. 02-Oct-1996 The number of foreign holidays sold by travel agents will be down 10% to about 8.4m this summer according to Lunn Poly, but agents will have benefited from higher prices. 01-Oct-1996 Brands Hatch Leisure, the motor sport organiser, is planning to raise £8m in a flotation in order to reduce borrowings. 30-Sep-1996 Lonrho has decided not to float its Princess Metropole hotels division as it believes that it can raise more money from a sale to another hotels group. 27-Sep-1996 Oriental Restaurant Group plans to raise £3.5m from a share placing in order to fund the opening of five new restaurants. 26-Sep-1996 PGA European Tour Courses is planning to build up a portfolio of 20 golf courses by 2000, compared to the six it currently owns or manages. 26-Sep-1996 PizzaExpress is buying 32 of its franchised restaurants, plus one independent outlet, at a cost of £25m. 24-Sep-1996 Regent Inns plans to have 100 pubs by the end of 1996, up from 57 in July. 24-Sep-1996 Fitness First, the operator of health clubs, is planning to raise up to £8m on the Alternative Investment Market in order to fund an expansion from its current six clubs to over 25. 23-Sep-1996 PizzaExpress is planning to open a further 30 pizza restaurants by June 1997. 20-Sep-1996 Brent Walker is looking to sell its Pubmaster chain of 1,700 pubs, and is in discussions with a number of potential buyers. 20-Sep-1996 Unchained Growth Pub Companies II and III has acquired 9 pubs from Regent Inns for £2.2m. 20-Sep-1996 Pheonix Inns is planning to buy Spring Inns, the chain of 1,406 pubs, from a group of institutions for £250m, with backing from Nomura, the Japanese bank. 18-Sep-1996 The Savoy Hotel group has received a number of approaches from prospective buyers, and is in the process of deciding which ones to follow up. 18-Sep-1996 Tom Cobleigh, the pub group, is in takeover discussions, and Yates Brothers Wine Lodges is thought to be the company interested in acquiring it. 14-Sep-1996 Rank Organisation has sold its inland amusement centres to a former director of Rank Amusements, in order to focus expansion on its main leisure businesses such as Odeon cinemas, bingo and multi-leisure centres. 14-Sep-1996 Research by The Henley Centre shows that the National Lottery will create 111,000 jobs, including 300 permanent jobs at the Lowry Museum which is being built in Salford. 10-Sep-1996 Principal Hotels is planning a flotation in October in order to raise £50m for expansion and debt-reduction. 09-Sep-1996 Sega Enterprises is opening its £50m Segaworld virtual reality theme park at the Trocadero centre in London. 07-Sep-1996 The number of visitors to the UK rose 12% in the first half to 11.6m according to the Office for National Statistics. 05-Sep-1996 JD Wetherspoon is planning to open about 30 pubs this year, and 60 pubs a year from next year. 05-Sep-1996 Preston North End Football Club has bought Chorley Borough rugby league club for undisclosed terms. 03-Sep-1996 Ladbroke has formed an alliance with Hilton Hotels of the US to jointly develop the Hilton hotel brand around the world, in a move that also allows the two companies to buy stakes in each other. 30-Aug-1996 Zetters is acquiring three bingo clubs from Leisure Workshop for £600k. 28-Aug-1996 Behnisch & Partners, the Stuttgart-based architects, are designing a £98m 2,300-seater centre for performing arts in Bristol, with the city council donating the land on the waterfront. 27-Aug-1996 Kvaerner of Norway is looking for a partner for the lossmaking Cunard cruise line business, which was acquired when it took over Trafalgar House earlier this year. 24-Aug-1996 Jarvis Hotels has bought Holiday Inn Gatwick East for £8.6m from the Scandic Hotels Group. 22-Aug-1996 Thistle, the hotel company, is planning a public share offer in order to reduce debt and then spend £120m on adding 2,000 rooms over the next four years. 21-Aug-1996 Lonrho has announced plans to float its Princess and Metropole hotel business, which could raise up to £700m. 13-Aug-1996 Crown Products has acquired Snakes and Ladders, which manages adventure playgrounds, and Yorkshire Playgrounds, which manages themed leisure facilities. 13-Aug-1996 Thomas Cook is in discussions to acquire Time Off, the city breaks tour operator. 08-Aug-1996 Littlewoods, the pools business, is launching a £7m marketing campaign to support a new weekly jackpot and improved odds for customers. 07-Aug-1996 Virgin Group is preparing to open the first Virgin Cinemas Multiplex in Rochester, which will include a number of innovations including a shop selling records, books and videos, and a premium viewing room. 26-Jul-1996 Wandsworth Borough Council is backing plans to convert Battersea power station into a £200m leisure and entertainment centre, and the consortium involved hopes to start building next spring. 23-Jul-1996 Hanover International is buying six hotels, all situated near either the M1 or M4 motorways, from UFB Group for £40m. 23-Jul-1996 English Heritage is to use the Private Finance Initiative to help fund a £65m visitor centre at Stonehenge. 19-Jul-1996 Camelot plans to introduce a mid-week National Lottery draw in the autumn. 18-Jul-1996 Sporting Index and City Index, the spread betting companies, are looking to merge later this year and then seek a full listing within two years. 17-Jul-1996 Scotland had a 7% increase in tourism revenue in 1995, to £2.2bn, following a fall of 8% the previous year. 13-Jul-1996 Rank is looking to sell Shearings, its coach holiday operation that includes 30 UK hotels, for up to £80m. 13-Jul-1996 Thistle Hotels has confirmed that it is seeking a flotation. 11-Jul-1996 Sheffield United Football Club may launch a stock market flotation this year in order to raise funds for the building of a £50m hotel, leisure and retail complex next to its stadium. 10-Jul-1996 Eurocamp is to remove 50 camp sites from its holiday brochures due to a big fall in bookings. 10-Jul-1996 Gibbs Mew plans to open 50 new tenanted pubs this year in a £10m capital expenditure programme. 10-Jul-1996 Cine-UK is planning to open 20 multiplex cinemas, called Cineworld - The Movies, over the next five years with the first opening next week in Stevenage. 06-Jul-1996 Marston Thompson & Evershed is linking up with Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries to buy a two-thirds stake in Mercury Taverns, an independent pubs concern with 129 tenancies, for £7.5m. 06-Jul-1996 Newcastle United Football Club is considering a flotation to raise funds for its expansion plans, which include the construction of a multi-sports stadium in the city. 05-Jul-1996 Clubhaus plans to acquire Family Golf, which runs golf centres in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire, for £1.7m. 05-Jul-1996 Inspirations, the package holiday company, is planning to buy Skiers World, the Cardiff-based tour operator, for up to £1.75m. 03-Jul-1996 Marston, Thompson & Evershed is planning to build up a series of branded pub chains, following its acquisition of the Pitcher and Piano chain. 03-Jul-1996 The Merseyside Development Corporation is planning to select Stadium Group, the private property company, to build a major leisure complex on Liverpool's waterfront, including multiplex cinema, health centre, bars and restaurants. 29-Jun-1996 Marston Thompson & Evershed, the regional brewer, has acquired the Pitcher & Piano chain of seven London bars for £20m, and plans to double the number of outlets by 1998. 29-Jun-1996 Yates Brothers Wine Lodges plans to open 12 new pubs this year and 15 next year. 28-Jun-1996 Pelican Group is planning a further 22 restaurants this year, with emphasis on the Dome chain. 28-Jun-1996 First Leisure has announced a major expansion programme, including four new nightclubs, seven bingo halls, fitness centres and indoor real snow ski slopes, with the creation of 1,400 jobs. 19-Jun-1996 Conrad, the sports and leisure concern, is interested in acquiring Leeds United Football Club for £20m, but is facing competition from Caspian, the media group. 18-Jun-1996 The number of overseas visitors to the UK rose 8% to 4.63m in the first quarter, prompting hope for a record year in the tourism industry. 06-Jun-1996 Jarvis Hotels expects to raise about £133m from this month's flotation, and the company will be valued at about £282m. 06-Jun-1996 Whitbread Hotel Company is planning a £34m 390-room hotel at Heathrow airport. 06-Jun-1996 Creation Records, the independent record label, has signed a deal in which Sony Music will distribute outside the UK all the records made by its artists. 05-Jun-1996 Unijet, the travel concern, is to acquire the remaining 60% of Leisure International Airways from Air UK and British Air Transport Holdings. 05-Jun-1996 Lomond Investment Holdings has bought a 29.9% stake in Courtyard Leisure, the restaurant and wine bar concern, from Maralea, the investment company. 04-Jun-1996 British Waterways has announced plans to convert the area around the Spaghetti Junction motorway intersection in Birmingham into a tourist attraction which will include an imitation beach. 03-Jun-1996 Whitbread Inns is planning to open 70 family pubs this year at a cost of £105m, creating over 2,700 jobs. 29-May-1996 Great Eagle Holdings of Hong Kong has bought the freehold in the Langham Hilton Hotel in London from Ladbroke for £100m. 27-May-1996 Granada has announced that it plans to keep the Meridien Hotel chain, where it expects to see good growth in profits. 23-May-1996 Land Securities is planning a £250m leisure and shopping complex in Birmingham city centre called the Martineau Galleries, in a joint venture with Australian Mutual Provident. 16-May-1996 Luminar is to raise £5m in a flotation in order to cut debt and expand its chain of Chicago Rock Cafes. 16-May-1996 Littlewoods Pools is cutting up to 600 jobs due to investment in new technology, with the closure of its operation at Hillington near Glasgow and cuts in Liverpool and Birkenhead. 15-May-1996 Keith Brown Properties (Hull) has bought three bowling centres in Rotherham, Wakefield and Mansfield, from Northern Leisure for £6m. 14-May-1996 Ladbroke is in discussions with Hilton Hotels of the US to jointly develop the Hilton brand around the world. 10-May-1996 Whitbread is planning a 20% increase in capital spending (to over £400m) on its hotels, pubs and restaurants, this year. 09-May-1996 There was a 2% rise in visits to tourist attractions last year and the top admission-charging places were Alton Towers (2.7m), Madame Tussaud's (2.7m), Tower of London (2.5m) and Chessington (1.7m), according to the British Tourist Authority. 06-May-1996 Thomas Cook is planning to sell its 11% stake in First Choice, the tour operator, as it prepares for the acquisition of Sunworld for £40m. 06-May-1996 Virgin Cinemas is planning to build 18 multiplex cinemas over the next four years, which will make it the UK's biggest multiplex operator. 04-May-1996 UK cinema admissions reached a weekly average of 2.81m in the first quarter, up 31% on last year, and the highest since 1975. 03-May-1996 Visitors to the UK should reach a record 25m this year, boosted by currency weakness, improved marketing and the channel tunnel, according to the Office for National Statistics. 02-May-1996 The government is expected to announce plans later this month to further relax licensing laws, allowing pubs to stay open for an extra hour on Friday and Saturday nights. 01-May-1996 Luminar, the disco and cafe company, plans to raise £5m in a flotation next month in order to cut debt and fund further expansion. 30-Apr-1996 Granada has sold two motorway service stations to a management buy-out for £8.3m. 30-Apr-1996 Wasps hopes to become the first rugby club to float on the stock market, and will raise £2.5m if members approve of the plan. 27-Apr-1996 Granada has said it will try to sell its Exclusive hotels and Welcome Break motorway restaurants in May, but will not sell the 84 Meridien hotels until later this year. 25-Apr-1996 The Brewers and Licensed Retailers Association has started to campaign for the renewal of the exemption of tied pubs from EU competition law to ensure the survival of small pubs and producers. 23-Apr-1996 Queens Moat Houses plans to sell 25 of its hotels for over £100m in order to reduce debt. 20-Apr-1996 A 500ft high Ferris Wheel is to be built by the Thames in London at a cost of £10m to mark the turn of the century and attract tourists. 18-Apr-1996 Sunderland Football Club is considering a flotation in order to provide funding for growth as it moves into the Premiership. 15-Apr-1996 Waterfall Holdings, the leisure company, is to float on the Alternative Investment Market in order to raise £3.5m to fund an expansion of its night clubs. 15-Apr-1996 Stoke is to get £14.8m of lottery money to develop a cultural quarter, including the restoration of the Art Deco Regent Theatre. 12-Apr-1996 Granada Group has announced 15% price increases at the 19 London hotels acquired from Forte, due to rising occupancy rates. 11-Apr-1996 The Department of National Heritage has commissioned a feasibility study into the setting up of a cinema in London's West End to showcase small-budget UK films. 10-Apr-1996 Choice Hotels International has awarded Friendly Hotels the master franchise for the UK and Ireland in a 10 year deal which will see Friendly receive an investment of £11m. 05-Apr-1996 CM Group of Yorkshire is acquiring the freehold of 34 pubs from Whitbread and will spend £4.5m on the purchase and upgrade of the pubs. 02-Apr-1996 Cunard is planning another refit of the QE2 liner, at a cost of £15m and just two years after the last refit which was not completed on time. 01-Apr-1996 Ladbroke continues to dispose of its commercial property portfolio with the sale of two office and retail developments in the Strand, London, and two other properties. 30-Mar-1996 The Hwang brothers of Hong Kong are planning a stock market listing for the £200m plan to turn the Battersea power station site in London into a leisure complex. 25-Mar-1996 The Cliveden luxury hotel is to be floated next month in order to raise £8m to acquire another hotel. 25-Mar-1996 Millwall, the London football club, aims to transform itself into a media and leisure company with plans to spend £25m in the next three years on buying small media and leisure companies. 20-Mar-1996 Allied Domecq plans to open 200 theme pubs this year in a £150m investment that will create 7,500 jobs. 12-Mar-1996 Pillar, the property concern, is to buy two leisure parks being developed in South Tyneside and Stockton-on-Tees for £16.8m from THI. 11-Mar-1996 Regal Hotel Group has agreed to buy 60 White Hart hotels from Granada. 09-Mar-1996 Millennium & Copthorne, the business hotels concern, plans a London flotation next month in order to reduce debt and raise its profile. 09-Mar-1996 The number of holidays taken by the British rose from 74m in 1990 to 86m in 1995, more than three per household, according to a report from Mintel. 08-Mar-1996 The UK tourist industry had a record year in 1995 with visitor spending up 18% to £11.8bn, benefiting from a weak pound and the ceasefire in Northern Ireland. 06-Mar-1996 Inspirations has bought a 75% stake in Blue Ridge Travel, the Horsham-based group holidays company. 05-Mar-1996 Jurys Hotel Group is planning to build a Jurys Inn in central Belfast, with 190 rooms and opening in May 1997. 02-Mar-1996 Granada has formed a hotels management division to run the hotels acquired in the Forte takeover. 02-Mar-1996 ITT Sheraton of the US is buying London's Park Lane Hotel for £45m. 01-Mar-1996 Stakis is to build a £16.3m hotel and golf resort near Belfast airport, creating about 150 jobs. 29-Feb-1996 The government is to further relax restrictions on the gambling industry by ending membership requirements for bingo clubs, by making it easier to join a casino, by extending licensing hours, and by allowing debit cards. 28-Feb-1996 Blackpool Football Club has awarded Alfred McAlpine a contract to build a £100m football stadium and leisure complex. 28-Feb-1996 Newcastle city council has rejected plans by Newcastle United football club to build a £15m ice rink in a Victorian park in the city. 24-Feb-1996 First Choice Holidays has a reported a 14% fall in summer bookings and may further reduce the number of holidays on offer in order to avoid discounting. 23-Feb-1996 Carnival, the US cruise line operator, is to acquire a 29.6% stake in Airtours, the UK tour operator, in what could be part of a plan to take full control. 23-Feb-1996 Airtours is buying Simon Spies Holding, the Danish tour operator, as well as aviation assets from Conair for £10m and £50m respectively. 16-Feb-1996 MAI and Time Warner are planning a £225m film theme park in Hillingdon, Middlesex, which could employ up to 3,500 people. 13-Feb-1996 Ladbroke has acquired London's Barracuda casino from Stakis for £27m, conditional on the successful acquisition of licences from the authorities. 09-Feb-1996 North American tourists to the UK reached 3.7m in the year to Nov 1995, the highest since 1990. 08-Feb-1996 Rank Organisation is to build a £80m Oasis holiday village near Folkestone, creating 700 jobs. 03-Feb-1996 Thorn EMI will soon announce plans for a £8bn demerger, with music and rentals becoming two separate companies. 03-Feb-1996 Cine-UK is planning to open 20 multi-screen cinemas over the next five years. 02-Feb-1996 Carlsberg-Tetley Brewing has bought a large part of Burtonwood Brewery's free trade business for £3.9m. 02-Feb-1996 Vaux Group is looking for buyers for five hotels from its Swallow chain. 01-Feb-1996 United Cinemas International plans to build six multiscreen cinemas over the next couple of years, creating 1,000 jobs. 30-Jan-1996 Ladbroke is in discussions to buy London's Barracuda casino from Stakis. 30-Jan-1996 Macdonald Hotels hopes to raise over £20m from a flotation, some of which will be used for expansion. 30-Jan-1996 Airtours reports that summer holiday bookings were down 34% at the end of December. 26-Jan-1996 Surrey Free Inns plans to complete the development of 10 sites this year, and is looking for further expansion. 25-Jan-1996 Trocadero has bought the rights to the Enid Blyton characters for £13m, and will include them in an expansion to the leisure complex in Piccadilly Circus. 24-Jan-1996 Spending on gambling rose 42% in 1995, due mainly to the National Lottery according to Mintel research. 24-Jan-1996 Magic Pub may plan a stock market flotation later this year, but would still consider a merger with another pub company instead. 24-Jan-1996 Forte plans to dispose of its White Hart hotel chain to Regal Hotel Group for £125m, in order to fend off the Granada bid. 20-Jan-1996 Carnival Corp, the US cruise liner operator, is in discussions to buy a 30% stake in Airtours, the UK tour operator. 20-Jan-1996 BCE Holdings is to focus on the development of computer games and withdraw from snooker and arcades. 16-Jan-1996 Disney is buying the first phase of London's Centre West development for its UK HQ. 13-Jan-1996 Tour operators are expecting a 17% fall in overseas holidays this summer according to the Civil Aviation Authority. 12-Jan-1996 Deep Sea World is planning to build one of the world's largest aquariums in Ellesmere Port, creating 90 jobs, but the local Chester Zoo is trying to block EU funding for the project. 10-Jan-1996 The number of alcohol-licensed premises in England and Wales has fallen for the first time since 1992, although applications for licences are holding up. 05-Jan-1996 Forte is planning 26 more Meridien hotels, with one in Manchester and the rest abroad. 02-Jan-1996 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. Click here for further details Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2007