U K
B U S I N E S S
P A R K
home page


Leisure 1997
2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996

The information below comes from the UK Activity Report.
Click here for further details

Newcastle United is planning a £42m expansion for its St James's Park football stadium, increasing the capacity from 36,800 to 51,000 and adding banqueting and conferencing facilities. 23-Dec-1997 Arcadian International, the hotels and leisure group, has received an approach that could lead to a takeover offer. 23-Dec-1997 The government is preparing to outlaw some techniques used by travel agents to sell package holidays, including the practice of linking insurance to discount offers, and travel agents will also have to state their relationships with holiday companies. 20-Dec-1997 Belhaven Brewery is to add another five pubs to its current portfolio of 72, as part of its continuing expansion programme. 19-Dec-1997 Avebury Taverns is to buy 62 pubs in the north of England from Whitbread Pub Partnerships for undisclosed terms. 17-Dec-1997 Caspian, the owner of Leeds United, has bought the football club's Elland Road ground and surrounding land from the council for £11.3m and plans to develop an indoor arena, hotel and leisure complex on the site. 17-Dec-1997 First Choice is to start offering budget cruises from the summer of 1999, a year later than originally planned due to a dispute with its unnamed cruise partner. 17-Dec-1997 The government has selected Sheffield as the site for the proposed national sports academy, which will create 1,000 permanent jobs. 17-Dec-1997 Bass is negotiating the exchange of 1,000 of its tenanted pubs for 200 of Nomura's higher-quality pubs, and a deal could be announced soon. 08-Dec-1997 London Clubs International has launched a joint venture with Planet Hollywood that involves London Clubs taking a 25% stake in Aladdin Gaming, which will have a 49% stake in a new Planet Hollywood restaurant format. 06-Dec-1997 Nomura has been given government approval for the previously-announced acquisition of 4,200 Inntrepreneur and Spring Inns pubs. 05-Dec-1997 Bass is looking to spend up to £2bn on acquisitions, and is particularly interested in hotels in Asia and brewing in eastern Europe. 04-Dec-1997 Hogg Robinson is expecting to announce a US acquisition soon that will represent a further step towards its goal of creating a global business travel operation. 03-Dec-1997 RF Hotels has won a contract to manage the Savoy Hotel in Florence, and is planning a £5m refurbishment programme. 03-Dec-1997 Whitbread Inns is to invest over £1m a week on the expansion of its Hogshead alehouse chain next year, adding another 40 outlets to the current 123. 01-Dec-1997 Fitness First is linking up with Berkeley Group, the housebuilder, in a £10m joint venture that will develop up to 15 new clubs under the Fitness First Berkeley name. 01-Dec-1997 Granada is selling Cote France, its French motorway service stations, to Autogrill of Italy for £83m. 01-Dec-1997 Cliveden has acquired Scottish Equitable's Edinburgh headquarters and will convert it into a luxury hotel. 29-Nov-1997 Inntrepreneur has been told by the European Commission that it will win approval for its new agreement which ties most of its pub lessees to buying their beer. 29-Nov-1997 Bass is discussing the sale of its 136 Gala bingo clubs to venture capital groups, while it is also negotiating the sale of 230 Bass pubs to Avebury Inns. 29-Nov-1997 Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries has cut its capital investment programme from £72m to £50m a year as it believes there are too many new pubs being opened. 28-Nov-1997 Airtours has completed the acquisition of 80% of Sun International, the Belgian tour operator, for £56m and it expects to acquire the remaining 20% soon. 27-Nov-1997 Jarvis Hotels is looking to spend up to £100m expanding its chain of 63 hotels, but is prepared to wait until suitable acquisitions become available. 26-Nov-1997 Charlton Athletic football club has raised £560,000 in a share placing in order to exploit commercial opportunities from its new stand and from its situation in the middle of the millennium celebrations. 26-Nov-1997 Phoenix Inns, the operator of 1,150 pubs, is being relaunched as Criterion Asset Management, offering management services for all types of property. 24-Nov-1997 IG Index, the City bookmaker, is setting up a new desk to handle bets on single shares, following an increase in business caused by the stockmarket turmoil. 22-Nov-1997 Macdonald Hotels is acquiring the Craxton Wood hotel near Chester for £1m. 20-Nov-1997 Celebrated is acquiring Restaurant House, which has the rights to run Chili's Grill and Bar restaurants in the UK, and has sold 15 AJ's Restaurants to Granada for £3m. 20-Nov-1997 Century Inns is to invest £6m refurbishing some of the pubs acquired earlier this year. 20-Nov-1997 Newcastle United is now considering plans to increase the capacity of its football ground to 50,000, indicating that plans for a new £65m super-stadium will be scrapped. 20-Nov-1997 Warner Bros and United News & Media are looking at sites in the Midland to set up a Movie World film production studio and theme park, and hope to select a location early next year. 19-Nov-1997 Enterprise Inns has announced a long-term target of doubling its chain of 1,200 pubs, which would involve increasing the number of regional divisions from four to six. 19-Nov-1997 Mansfield Brewery plans to spend a further £14m expanding its pub chain in the second half, as it aims to move southwards and westwards from its Midlands base. 19-Nov-1997 Leicester Tigers rugby club is now planning to raise £5m from its private share issue later this month, in order to provide sufficient funds to acquire land and, possibly, the Welford Road ground. 18-Nov-1997 The Post Office is considering plans to launch a bid for the National Lottery licence when it is renewed in 2001, but would first need to be granted greater commercial freedom by the government. 18-Nov-1997 Granada is expected to soon announce the sale of its French motorway service stations for about £80m, as talks continue with three interested parties. 17-Nov-1997 Nomura is to launch a £200m junk bond to help finance its £700m acquisition of the William Hill betting shop chain from Brent Walker. 10-Nov-1997 Yates Brothers Wine Lodges is investing £4m in a tie-up with Quintain Estates, creating a new business that will buy and lease back 15 Yates bars. 07-Nov-1997 Northern Leisure has acquired a 1,420-capacity dance hall in Swindon for £3.5m, bringing its number of outlets to 44. 07-Nov-1997 Prudential is said to be discussing the acquisition of Cunard, the cruise line owned by Kvaerner. 06-Nov-1997 The government has indicated that it expects to ban rapid-draw lotteries such as Inter Lotto's Pronto draw, which are designed to offer pub-goers prizes every five minutes. 06-Nov-1997 The Football Museum charitable trust has won a £7.56m grant to help set up the £12m national football museum at Preston North End football club. 06-Nov-1997 Ladbroke is selling its Hyde Park Plaza hotel in London to Regent Corporation for £44m. 06-Nov-1997 Whitbread is considering plans to move into Germany and the Netherlands with its Travel Inns budget hotel chain and its David Lloyd sports clubs, although high property prices and wage costs may cause a problem. 06-Nov-1997 Loftus Road is considering the possibility of building a new stadium in west London to house Queens Park Rangers football club, Wasps rugby union club, and London Broncos rugby league club. 04-Nov-1997 The government has proposed the relocation of the English National Opera from its London home, the Coliseum, to share the new Covent Garden site with the Royal Opera and the Royal Ballet. 04-Nov-1997 London Clubs International is linking up with Planet Hollywood in a hotel and casino development in Las Vegas. 01-Nov-1997 Thomson has said it would consider withdrawing its holiday packages from all other travel agents if the Monopolies & Mergers Commission forces it to change the name of its Lunn Poly shops to Thomson. 01-Nov-1997 RF Hotels is taking over the management of two hotels in St Petersburg, and is planning to invest about £10m in their modernisation and the acquisition of an equity stake. 31-Oct-1997 Granada's Forte Hotels division has won a management contract for a new 314-room hotel in London's Docklands which will open in spring 1999, and is also planning to invest £63m in its other London hotels. 30-Oct-1997 Friendly Hotels has acquired 13 European hotels from Choice Hotels for £16m, and is paying an additional £4.9m for the master franchise rights for the Quality, Comfort and Clarion brands in Europe. 29-Oct-1997 Airtours is to set up a package holiday business in Poland next year, under the name Ving. 29-Oct-1997 The Old English Pub Company has identified 46 potential properties to expand its chain of 104 pubs. 28-Oct-1997 Millennium Point, the £112m science and technology centre planned for Birmingham, is now expected to go ahead following the pledge of £6m from six sponsors. 28-Oct-1997 Tottenham Hotspur is looking into the possibility of acquiring football clubs in Europe and Asia, as they would offer synergies in marketing and sponsorship. 24-Oct-1997 Luminar is planning to open a further five Chicago Rock cafes by the end of the year and a further 13 in 1998-99, and is also expected to move into the market for family restaurants. 24-Oct-1997 The British Museum is to get a £15.75m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, which will be used for the redevelopment that is due for completion late in 2000. 21-Oct-1997 GPA Group is acquiring the Canadian Grill in Spitalfields market, London, and plans to open new outlets using the brand. 20-Oct-1997 Grosvenor Inns has sold 15 pubs to Sirenia for £9m in order to focus on the expansion of its Slug and Lettuce chain, which will see 17 new openings by January 1999. 18-Oct-1997 Regal Hotel Group is getting a £40m cash injection from Regent Corporation of the US, and the two companies have formed a new joint venture company which is negotiating the acquisition of a 3-star hotel in London. 15-Oct-1997 First Leisure is to write down the value of its bingo division in its accounts prompting speculation that it may be sold off in order to focus on nightclubs, bars, tenpin bowling and fitness centres. 15-Oct-1997 Airtours has acquired a resort in the Canary Islands for £11m, which it will convert into 150 timeshare apartments. 15-Oct-1997 Prestbury Leisure has had its shares suspended following news that two property executives are planning to take a majority stake in the company and use it as an investment vehicle. 14-Oct-1997 Thomson Travel has acquired Austravel and Ausbound, the Australian holiday suppliers, for about £20m. 11-Oct-1997 Zetters, the football pools company, has indicated that it is may put itself up for sale or merger. 09-Oct-1997 Hogg Robinson has bought the business travel business of Kuoni in France and Italy for £300,000, and the two companies have also agreed to co-operate more closely. 08-Oct-1997 RAL is acquiring six BCE Arcades amusement arcades from Rage Software for £1.7m. 08-Oct-1997 Chez Gerard is aiming to expand its chain of restaurants from 13 to 20 over the next two years, but is being slowed down by a skills shortage. 07-Oct-1997 Sun Express Holidays, the SunTours operator, has collapsed due to financial problems at its Turkish owner's main travel company. 07-Oct-1997 Marston, Thompson & Evershed is reorganising its pubs division by bringing the tenanted and managed houses under one single retail organisation. 04-Oct-1997 English & Overseas Properties is acquiring a £5.6m stake in Oriel Leisure, the hotel consultancy which is to build 15 budget hotels in conjunction with Holiday Hospitality Corporation. 03-Oct-1997 Wendy's International is planning a major expansion of its hamburger restaurant chain in the UK and continental Europe, and is in discussions with potential partners such as operators of leisure facilities and service stations. 30-Sep-1997 Whitbread has been told by the European Commission that it will get approval for the system in which its pub tenants are tied to its beer supplies, as it said the tenants benefit from low rents and bulk-purchasing rebates. 30-Sep-1997 Honeycombe Leisure, the chain of 32 pubs, is planning to raise about £7m in a flotation in order to fund expansion and repay a loan. 29-Sep-1997 Wolverhampton & Dudley Breweries is to sell 147 pubs to Avebury Inns for £16.4m, and wind down its Fast Eddies sports bars and Last Word cafe bars. 26-Sep-1997 Granada says it would consider the sale of its Heritage chain of 60 provincial hotels, worth over £200m, in order to focus on its Posthouse and Travelodge brands. 25-Sep-1997 Regent Inns is planning to expand its chain of Jongleurs comedy clubs from three to eight within two years and its chain of Walkabouts Australian bars from seven to eleven. 25-Sep-1997 PizzaExpress is planning to open 30 more outlets this year, and wants to expand abroad with franchises in countries such as France, India and Egypt. 24-Sep-1997 Celtic Leisure has sold the freehold of the Wales National Ice Rink in Cardiff to Compco, the property company, for £2.7m. 23-Sep-1997 English National Investment Company has raised £51m from a share issue to financial institutions in order to fund investments in football clubs and other sports and leisure companies. 23-Sep-1997 Scottish Highland Hotels is raising about £6.6m in a share placing in order to help finance the £12.8m acquisition of two hotels in Durham and Rotherham. 20-Sep-1997 PA Sporting Life, the joint venture between Mirror Group and the Press Association, is planning to set up a sports betting service on the internet and is in discussions with various bookmakers about offering odds on the site. 19-Sep-1997 European Leisure is considering plans to add a further 20 outlets to its 65-strong chain of Rileys American Pool Bars over the next year. 16-Sep-1997 ABC Cinemas is planning to close 20 of its city centre cinemas that have been hit by the rising popularity of out-of-town multiplexes, and is developing its own plans to open multiplexes. 16-Sep-1997 Grand Metropolitan is looking to sell a package of 23 Burger King franchises whose owners have gone out of business, and has offered to cut its royalty charges. 13-Sep-1997 Whitbread is acquiring Elite Childcare, the chain of three children's nurseries in south-east England which will now be operated by Gatehouse Nursery Services, the David Lloyd Leisure subsidiary. 12-Sep-1997 Tring International, the budget music company, has announced that it has received a takeover approach from an unnamed company. 11-Sep-1997 Holmes Place, the operator of health clubs, is planning to raise £15m in a listing later this year, which will value it at £70m. 08-Sep-1997 Brent Walker has extended the deadline for bids for its William Hill betting shop chain to early October, in the hope of receiving a bid without retention clauses. 08-Sep-1997 Enterprise Inns has bought 94 pubs in the south of England from Whitbread for £9.4m. 06-Sep-1997 JD Wetherspoon is planning to speed up its expansion programme by opening 60 new pubs a year over the next three years. 05-Sep-1997 Rank Group is to invest £139m in its Butlin's holiday camps over the next two years, refurbishing accommodation at Skegness, Minehead and Bognor Regis, and converting Ayr and Pwllheli into Haven caravan parks. 04-Sep-1997 Greenalls Group has sold three De Vere hotels to Sarova Hotels for £15m, and proceeds will be used to reduce debt and boost capital expenditure. 03-Sep-1997 Mitsubishi Estates is proposing plans for the £150m redevelopment of Paternoster Square in London which include the construction of five buildings up to eight storeys high and a leisure complex. 01-Sep-1997 Nottingham Forest Football Club has confirmed plans for a flotation, which is likely to be worth £40m, and proceeds will be reinvested in the business. 01-Sep-1997 Ladbroke has started discussions to sell some of its £1.4bn of hotel freeholds in order to fund the expansion of its Hilton International hotels. 29-Aug-1997 Wimbledon, the football club, is reported to be preparing to merge with Molde, the Norwegian club, and float on the London and Oslo stock markets. 28-Aug-1997 Macdonald Hotels has acquired a 50% stake in Barratt International Resorts, which is a subsidiary of the Barratt construction group and owns nine leisure resorts in the UK and Spain, for £3m. 28-Aug-1997 Fosters' Brewing Group and Grand Metropolitan are said to be considering a flotation for their Inntrepreneur chain of 3,000 pubs. 26-Aug-1997 Break for the Border is looking to sell its music and theatre business, excluding the Borderline venue in London, in order to focus on restaurants and bars. 20-Aug-1997 Capital Corporation is under examination from the Gaming Board following allegations of control problems at two of its casinos - the Colony Club and Crockfords. 19-Aug-1997 Bass is said to be considering a £650m bid for First Leisure. 19-Aug-1997 Wigan council is devising plans with Moorfield Estates and Greenbank Partnerships to build a £150m indoor leisure centre, which would include a snow centre, swimming centre and hotel, and create 2,500 jobs. 19-Aug-1997 Camelot has failed in its attempt to win a court ruling that 49s, the rival lottery-based game operated by William Hill, Ladbroke and Coral, was illegal. 19-Aug-1997 RAL has bought 17 Golden Touch amusement centres from SAL for undisclosed terms. 19-Aug-1997 Grosvenor Inns is to sell its chain of wine bars to a management team for £1.9m, in order to focus on its Slug and Lettuce brand. 16-Aug-1997 Thomas Cook is planning to start selling holidays and foreign exchange over the internet next month. 15-Aug-1997 Thomas Cook is to set up a telephone call-centre in Falkirk to take holiday bookings, initially employing 150 staff. 14-Aug-1997 Ladbroke has won a licence to open a fifth casino in London, at the St Giles hotel near Tottenham Court Road, and is now rumoured to be considering a bid for Capital Corporation, the rival casino operator. 12-Aug-1997 Leicester Tigers, the rugby union club, is planning to raise up to £2.5m from its 9,000 members and outside investors in order to develop its merchandising and conferencing activities. 12-Aug-1997 The National Indoor Arena in Birmingham has been selected to host next year's Eurovision Song Contest, which should give a boost to the city's tourism industry. 09-Aug-1997 Rank is planning to revitalise its Butlins holidays following a fall in bookings which has been attributed to dissatisfaction with the accommodation on offer. 08-Aug-1997 The Monopolies & Mergers Commission has found that large travel agent groups may be acting in an anti-competitive way, so they may be forced to sell branches or rename them and stop linking discounts to the sale of travel insurance. 08-Aug-1997 Ann Street Brewery's Lionheart subsidiary has bought 11 pubs from Enterprise Inns for £6.8m. 07-Aug-1997 The government has blocked London Clubs International from renewing its bid for Capital Corporation, as it would have given London Clubs 79% of the up-market casino business in London. 06-Aug-1997 Regent Inns has sold its 5.5% stake in Surrey Free Inns, realising £3.69m which will be used to fund its expansion plans and reduce gearing. 05-Aug-1997 Surrey Free Inns is planning to move from the Alternative Investment Market to the main market in September, and will change its name to SFI Group. 01-Aug-1997 The government is set to review online pub lotteries, such as the one announced last week by Inter Lotto, to see whether there is a risk of people becoming addicted, following concerns expressed by the Gaming Board. 30-Jul-1997 Electra Investment Trust is acquiring a 25% stake in Derby County football club for £10m. 30-Jul-1997 Hall of Fame, the start-up leisure venture, is approaching a number of wealthy potential backers in order to raise the additional £1m needed to finance the setting up of a football gallery at the Trocadero Centre in London. 29-Jul-1997 Northern Leisure has acquired a nightclub in Reading for £1.25m, and plans to spend a further £2m a month on acquisitions until the year-end. 29-Jul-1997 Northern Leisure has bought a Chesterfield night club, with a capacity of 1,800, for £1.9m. 25-Jul-1997 Inter Lotto is planning to launch an online lottery in pubs and shopping malls in November, with draws every five minutes and 20% of the proceeds going to charity. 24-Jul-1997 Kingfisher Leisure, the chain of nine nightclubs in the south, has raised £7.5m in joining the Alternative Investment Market, which will be used to fund nine new branches of the McClusky's theme bar. 23-Jul-1997 British Waterways is taking over the West India and Millwall docks in London in order to expand the leisure facilities, with plans to set up floating restaurants and moorings for leisure boats. 22-Jul-1997 Mansfield Brewery has bought seven managed pubs from McManus Taverns in Northampton for £8.5m. 21-Jul-1997 Aston Villa is planning to build a 100-bed hotel next to its football stadium in Birmingham in order to boost revenues from non-football sources. 16-Jul-1997 Inn Business is planning to expand its chain of managed pubs from 27 to up to 75 in the next two years, with 30 going under the Hooden Horse brand. 16-Jul-1997 Brent Walker is planning to make a list of about five potential buyers for its William Hill betting shop chain, which is thought to be worth over £600m. 15-Jul-1997 Cafe Inns, the pub and cafe group, is to raise about £2.25m in a share placing to fund refurbishment and maintenance work. 15-Jul-1997 David Lloyd Associates is to acquire Hull City Football Club for about £2.3m. 12-Jul-1997 Alchemy, the venture capital company, is considering a move to acquire Inntrepreneur, the chain of 2,900 pubs, but a deal is likely to depend on the outcome of Inntrepreneur's legal proceedings with some of its tenants. 10-Jul-1997 Thomson Corporation of Canada may be considering plans to demerge Thomson Travel Group, the package holiday company, having split the business from its other activities at boardroom level. 10-Jul-1997 Allied Domecq is planning a £150m investment in its pub estate, including 50 new Big Steak pubs alongside Wacky Warehouses and 50 Firkin pubs, creating over 2,000 jobs. 10-Jul-1997 Ladbroke is looking to sell eight UK hotels, with an average of 100 rooms and with a book value of £90m. 09-Jul-1997 Warner Village is to build four multiplex cinemas in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Inverness and Kilmarnock at a cost of £40m, creating 500 jobs. 08-Jul-1997 PGA European Tour Courses, the golf course operator, is to cut back its expansion strategy due to poor first-half trading caused by the strength of sterling. 05-Jul-1997 Burford Holdings is acquiring the buildings of the Trocadero leisure complex in London for up to £213m, leaving Trocadero with £73m to develop its intellectual property rights business. 03-Jul-1997 Scottish & Newcastle is to expand its Chef & Brewer pub restaurant chain from 25 to 60 this year, and eventually aims to have 150. 01-Jul-1997 The Magic Pub Company is planning to raise up to £30m from the sale of unwanted pubs. 26-Jun-1997 Cinema admissions fell by 17% to 24.7m in the first quarter of the year compared to last year, apparently due to a lack of big movies, according to the Office for National Statistics. 21-Jun-1997 Lunn Poly, the travel agents, is to take the government to court over its decision to increase insurance premium tax to 17.5% when sold through travel agents. 21-Jun-1997 Arena Leisure is aiming to spend about £30m on acquiring racecourses and other sports venues over the next year, as part of plans to establish a £500m leisure business in the next five years. 21-Jun-1997 Alehouse Company has bought 103 pubs from Allied Domecq Retailing for £11.2m. 21-Jun-1997 Jarvis Hotels is looking to spend up to £30m on buying hotels this year, and also plans to sell peripheral properties having just announced the sale of two hotels in Swansea and London for a total £1.8m. 20-Jun-1997 Capital Corporation has acquired a £50,000 option to buy the Cromwell Mint casino in London, but will not exercise the option until it hears the outcome of the Monopolies & Mergers Commission investigation into the hostile takeover bid it received from London Clubs International. 19-Jun-1997 Northern Leisure has acquired a 900-capacity nightclub in Oxford for £1.7m, bringing its total number of outlets to 38. 16-Jun-1997 Inspirations, the package holiday concern, is in discussions with a potential buyer thought to be US-based Carlson Travel. 13-Jun-1997 Mansfield Brewery is planning a £30m expansion of its pub range and will move into areas away from its traditional base of Yorkshire and the east Midlands. 12-Jun-1997 Yates Brothers Wine Lodges is planning to open 25 new wine lodges and pubs this year bringing the total to 94, following a better then expected increase in annual profits. 11-Jun-1997 Granada has sold Brown's Hotel in London to Raffles Holdings of Singapore for £45m. 09-Jun-1997 Bass has acquired West Midlands Taverns, the chain of 18 pubs, for £20m. 08-Jun-1997 Warner Bros has dropped plans to set up a movie theme park in Uxbridge due to problems with the planning authorities, and is now considering other sites around London. 02-Jun-1997 RF Hotels is to set up a chain of four star hotels in Russia, with the first to be located in Nizhny Novgorod. 02-Jun-1997 Century Inns is acquiring 78 managed pubs from Pubmaster for £35m, including some in the south as it moves out of its native north-east for the first time. 31-May-1997 Warner Village, the joint venture between Warner Brothers and Village Roadshow of Austria, is now expected to go-ahead with plans to build a multiscreen cinema complex at the Battersea power station redevelopment project in London. 30-May-1997 Stakis is looking to sell eight of its three-star hotels, raising up to £45m, in order to speed up its transformation into a four-star group. 30-May-1997 Waterfall Holdings, the leisure group, is raising £5.5m in a rights issue in order to finance further expansion of its chain of snooker and pool clubs. 29-May-1997 EMI is to rationalise its North American record labels and close the EMI Capitol head office in New York, in order to save up to £40m a year. 28-May-1997 Farringford, the hotel and pub company, is acquiring Lingfield Park racecourse in a reverse takeover, with the new company to be called Arena Leisure. 23-May-1997 EMI is in discussions to sell its music online for the first time, via the digital jukebox system being run by Eurodat of France. 20-May-1997 Greenalls Group is to invest £100m in its chain of pubs and restaurants, and aims to focus on quality pubs and dispose of smaller ones. 20-May-1997 Bannatyne Health & Leisure is considering plans to invest a further £16m in fitness clubs, and is looking at sites in London. 20-May-1997 The National Heritage Lottery Fund is allocating £57m of lottery money for the refurbishment of run-down parks in towns and cities, in order to make them cleaner and safer. 16-May-1997 Clubhaus is buying four more golf courses in Essex and Dorset for £10.5m. 16-May-1997 Whitbread is planning to set up a further 250 pubs, restaurants, and hotels, in a major expansion for its main chains, creating 5,000 jobs. 08-May-1997 Whitbread is planning to sell off about 400 underperforming pubs and 80 off-licences in order to improve its return on capital. 06-May-1997 Rank Group, the bingo and casino operator, is cutting salary levels for its middle level club managers by £2,000, as part of plans to save £1m a year. 05-May-1997 European Leisure has acquired Stanley Snooker Clubs, which operates four snooker clubs in the north west, from Stanley Leisure for £725,000. 03-May-1997 P&O is linking up with Kuoni Travel to prepare for the expected boom in tourist trips to Asia. 02-May-1997 Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust has decided to auction its leisure division as it has received a number of approaches, although it is still in discussions to sell the business to Shearings. 02-May-1997 South Beach Cafe of the US is planning to expand its UK business using the £1.8m proceeds from a listing on Aim. 30-Apr-1997 Camelot is launching a private prosecution against three bookmakers, Coral, William Hill and Ladbrokes, that are said to be running the 49s game in competition to the National Lottery. 26-Apr-1997 Regal Hotel Group is acquiring 13 Country Club hotels from Whitbread for £64m, giving it a total of 95 hotels. 26-Apr-1997 Lady in Leisure Group plans to expand its chain of women's health clubs from eight to 16 over the next 16 months, having just raised £1.7m with a share placing on Aim. 25-Apr-1997 Granada is considering plans to sell its computer services business, some London hotels and some of its Heritage hotels, but may now keep some of its Exclusive hotels. 24-Apr-1997 PGA European Tour Courses has acquired a 50% stake in the Woburn golf club for about £5.7m. 19-Apr-1997 Inn Business Group is buying Hooden Horse Inns, a chain of six pubs in Kent, for £1.4m. 17-Apr-1997 Camelot has failed to stop 49s, the rival lottery run by bookmakers, in a second High Court bid. 15-Apr-1997 Friendly Hotels is to buy out British Land's stake in Friendly Lodges, their joint venture with 7 hotels, for £2.9m. 11-Apr-1997 City Centre Restaurants is looking into the possibility of expanding its Caffe Uno and Deep Pan Pizza brands abroad through franchising. 09-Apr-1997 London Clubs' £192m hostile bid for Capital Corporation has been referred to the Monopolies & Mergers Commission, which could lead to an approach from another company. 08-Apr-1997 Inter Lotto is planning to launch an online lottery game which will be broadcast in pubs and shopping malls from this autumn. 05-Apr-1997 Break for the Border plans to treble the size of its themed restaurant chain over the next three years, partly funded by a £3m rights issue just launched. 05-Apr-1997 Rank Group is planning a £1.5bn expansion of its leisure division over the next five years, including new bingo clubs, bars, nightclubs and Odeon cinemas. 04-Apr-1997 JD Wetherspoon is planning to open 350 new pubs over the next 5 years in a £350m expansion plan which will create 10,000 jobs. 02-Apr-1997 The Old English Pub Company is buying 19 pubs from Glenchewton for £10.8m. 27-Mar-1997 The government is to introduce a number of gambling deregulation measures which will enable bingo operators to advertise on TV and betting shops to advertise in print. 25-Mar-1997 Northern Leisure, the dance hall operator, is planning to raise £10.8m in a share placing in order to reduce borrowings, and says it will continue to spend about £2m a month on acquisitions. 25-Mar-1997 Leicester City Football Club is planning a stock market flotation in June, which will value it at up to £50m, in order to raise funds for stadium development and new players. 25-Mar-1997 Queens Moat Houses is planning to sell off some its 36 German hotels in order to reduce borrowings. 21-Mar-1997 Burford Holdings is in discussions with a hotel operator to develop four small and luxurious hotels in London's west end. 21-Mar-1997 Littlewoods Pools is to close its Shore Road site in Birkenhead with the loss of 326 jobs, while a further 100 jobs will be cut at its headquarters, with the company blaming the effect of the National Lottery. 19-Mar-1997 Airtours and Carnival Corporation, its shareholder, are to acquire Costa Crociere, the Italian cruise line, for £168m. 18-Mar-1997 Principal Hotels has bought the Selsdon Park Hotel and golf course near Croydon. 17-Mar-1997 Barr & Wallace Arnold Trust is discussing the sale of its leisure division to an unnamed company. 12-Mar-1997 Lonrho is discussing the sale of its 10 luxury resort-style hotels in order to focus on its core mining business after the forthcoming demerger. 10-Mar-1997 Whitbread is to sell its Keg chain of restaurants in North America to Raleigh of Canada for £23m. 08-Mar-1997 Overseas visitors to the UK rose 8% to 26m in 1996, with European visitors up 12% to 17m and US visitors static at 3.7m. 06-Mar-1997 Waterfall Holdings has acquired 12 snooker and sports clubs from Regent Inns for £4.8m. 05-Mar-1997 Ladbroke is to close its property division and sell £50m of assets, in order to reduce debt. 05-Mar-1997 Greenalls is restructuring its pub estate by transferring 245 managed pubs to a franchised operation and combining the Premier House pub restaurants with its managed house division. 05-Mar-1997 Century Inns has bought 65 tenanted pubs from the Pub Partnership for £9m, increasing its number of pubs to 422. 05-Mar-1997 Thistle Hotels is planning to add 2,000 rooms to its hotel chain over the next few years, and will rebrand about 20 hotels under the Thistle name. 05-Mar-1997 Granada has sold the Plaza Athenee hotel in Paris to PA Holdings for £45m. 04-Mar-1997 Charlton Athletic Football Club is planning to raise £5.5m from a flotation in order to fund the expansion of its stadium. 28-Feb-1997 Lookers has sold four freehold holiday parks to Flower of May Holiday Parks for £4.2m. 27-Feb-1997 Heron International has announced a £135m programme to build five multiplex cinemas and leisure centres in France and Spain. 26-Feb-1997 Virgin Group is developing plans to launch a new type of multimedia leisure centre which will include cinemas, retailing and video games, and is in discussions with prospective partners. 24-Feb-1997 Allied Leisure is discussing the acquisition of eight Burger King franchises in an attempt to move into the branded restaurants business. 22-Feb-1997 Calvin's Barbecue of the US is planning to set up a chain of 100 fast food outlets across the Midlands, offering chicken, fish and pork, in a move which will create an initial 500 jobs. 21-Feb-1997 Inntrepreneur has won government permission to tie its pub tenants into beer supply contracts, which will enable it to use its purchasing power to win discounts from brewers and pass some of the savings on to tenants. 20-Feb-1997 Birmingham City Football Club is to float on Aim next month in order to raise £7.5m for the redevelopment of its stadium and for new players. 19-Feb-1997 Groupe Chez Gerard has bought Livebait, the London fish restaurant, for up to £1.6m, and is now looking for further acquisitions. 19-Feb-1997 Chelsfield has acquired the Westbury hotels in London and New York from Granada for £90m. 19-Feb-1997 London Clubs International has made a £178m hostile takeover bid for Capital Corporation, the casino operator, a move which would give it up to 60% of the London casino market. 18-Feb-1997 Regent Inns is planning to increase its chain of pubs from the current 80 to 200 in five years time. 18-Feb-1997 Rank Group is to open a £100m Oasis Forest Holiday Village in Cumbria in May, creating up to 900 jobs. 17-Feb-1997 Grosvenor Inns is planning to open a further seven Slug and Lettuce pubs this year, with another 16 to follow. 15-Feb-1997 Asda is one of four companies bidding about £400m for the Welcome Break motorway service areas being sold off by Granada Group. 14-Feb-1997 The Northern Ireland Tourist Board is to link up with its counterpart in the Irish Republic for the first time to promote the island of Ireland as a single holiday destination. 11-Feb-1997 Village Roadshow, the Australian cinema operator, is planning to run a 30-screen cinema complex near Birmingham, which will be the largest in Europe. 11-Feb-1997 Queens Moat Houses is to sell 25 hotels to a management buy-in for £91.5m in order to reduce debt. 10-Feb-1997 Aston Villa Football Club is planning a stock market flotation in the spring in order to raise up to £20m for stadium improvements and working capital. 07-Feb-1997 Venture World has bought the American Adventure theme park in Derbyshire from Granada for £3.5m. 06-Feb-1997 Clubhaus has acquired the Castle Royle Golf and Country Club near Maidenhead for about £3m. 04-Feb-1997 Capital Corporation, the casino operator, has rejected a takeover approach from an unnamed company thought to be a management buy-in backed by Ogden of New York. 29-Jan-1997 London Clubs International is investing £30m in a 25% stake in Aladdin Gaming Corporation, a company set up to build the $750m Aladdin Hotel and Casino on Las Vegas Boulevard. 24-Jan-1997 There was a 9% fall in the number of people taking foreign package holidays last year according to the Civil Aviation Authority, following moves by tour operators to cut capacity and reduce price discounting. 22-Jan-1997 Stanley Leisure has acquired James Lane (Bookmakers), Pandashield and Daniel McLaren, for an initial £8m, in order to expand its gaming operations in the south of England. 21-Jan-1997 Anglo-Welsh, the canal boat holidays concern, is planning to acquire Dartline for £1m and raise £2m with a flotation on Aim. 20-Jan-1997 Ladbroke is moving into the fast-growing market for spread-betting with a new service which will require customers to open an account and make bets over the telephone. 18-Jan-1997 Newcastle United Football Club is to repay debts with the proceeds from its April flotation, and will not use the funds to buy players or finance the cost of a new stadium. 17-Jan-1997 The government is proposing a further deregulation of the football pools industry by allowing the introduction of midweek competitions. 15-Jan-1997 Charlton Athletic Football Club is planning a flotation on the Alternative Investment Market in order to raise £5m for the redevelopment of its stadium. 15-Jan-1997 The Tussauds Group, which is owned by Pearson, is discussing plans to build a £100m theme park in Thailand. 14-Jan-1997 Ladbroke and Hilton Hotels have agreed a plan to reunite the Hilton hotel brand worldwide, in a deal which will see Hilton Hotels acquire an initial 5% of Ladbroke. 14-Jan-1997 AT Mays has announced plans to link up with a consortium of independent travel agents to create a powerful network of over 1,000 shops with a 12% market share. 13-Jan-1997 First Choice Holidays is planning to develop partnerships with travel agents and provide them with own-label holidays, but it is not expected to acquire a travel agent in the short-term. 09-Jan-1997 McDonald's is planning to invest £116m in opening over 100 UK restaurants this year, creating 5,000 jobs. 03-Jan-1997 The information below comes from the UK Activity Report. Click here for further details Copyright UK Business Park 1995-2007