A-Z of the Sunday newspapers
THIS Is Money reads the Sunday papers so you don't have to. Here is this week's run-down of who is making the headlines on the City pages:
Sunday Telegraph
Austin Reed
Jamie Hargreaves, the son of Matalan's wealthy founder, John Hargreaves, has tabled a 170p-a-share bid for Austin Reed, the upmarket retailer.
BAA
The Government has told BAA that it will redeem its 'golden share' in the privatised airports company, paving the way for a possible break-up of the company or sale of Heathrow, Stansted or Gatwick airports.
British Energy
The Government has issued an ultimatum to creditors of British Energy that the stricken nuclear generator will be forced into administration at the end of this month unless they sign up to a new financing package.
BSkyB
The satellite television group will this week announce a shake-up in its pricing structure in a bid to triple the number of people buying its Sky Plus service and boost its revenue per user figures.
Cedar
Thousands of small shareholders in the software firm Cedar are being forced to sell out to Alchemy, the venture capital firm, at just 3p-a-share after an 18-month battle to retain a stake in the former stock market darling.
easyCinema
A price war is set to break out in British cinemas after 20th Century Fox, the world's leading film distributor, agreed to supply Stelios Haji-Ioannou's easyCinema, which offers seats for as little as £1 on releases of new films.
Tesco
A much-heralded '£60m' price cutting campaign by Tesco has been ridiculed by rivals after it emerged the supermarket had slashed the cost of Christmas puddings, Christmas cakes and mince pies at the height of summer.
Sunday Times
British Energy
Ministers are drawing up plans to take British Energy, the indebted nuclear power company, back into public ownership if a deal with creditors cannot be reached in the next three weeks.
Defence
Billions of pounds in contracts for tanks, submarines, frigate and aircraft face the axe in a budget review carried out for a new white paper on defence policy.
Monsoon
Angry shareholders have asked for assurances that the retailer‘s directors did not act illegally over a controversial put option being offered to investors.
Punch Taverns
The shake-up in the ownership of Britain‘s pubs will gather pace on Monday when Punch Taverns announces it is raising more than £300m to fund a new acquisition spree.
Small business
A tax in which up to 1m husband and wife limited companies could be hit with unexpected demands for back-payments looks set to be reviewed by the Inland Revenue after months of intense pressure.
Telecoms
A shortage of 'third-generation' video phones is threatening 3‘s chances of hitting its target of 1m customers by the end of the year. Carphone Warehouse, Britain‘s leading mobile-phone retailer, is among those waiting for phones.
Wealth
Britain now has more women millionaires (299,300) than men (271,700), according to a study that puts the shift down to changing social trends such as the climbing divorce rate and equal treatment of sons and daughters in inheritance.
Independent on Sunday
Bradford & Bingley
The former building society is planning to make a move into selling motor insurance and is in talks to buy the Swinton chain of high-street brokers for around £100m.
Hugh Osmond
The City entrepreneur behind Punch Taverns and PizzaExpress is to be investigated over a deal to buy a small chain of bars from a travel company that collapsed earlier this year.
Observer
Safeway
A joint £2.7bn bid for Safeway could be made by supermarket rivals Asda and Wm Morrison if multi-millionaire Bhs boss Philip Green wades in with a counter-bid next month.
BskyB
The European Commission is set to level charges of price-fixing at the Premier League for the second time this year, if, as expected, it finds that BSkyB was the only bidder for most of its live match packages.
Dixons
The electrical retailer is expected to confirm fears this week that the long hot summer has hit sales by as much as 2% in the last four months on the same period last year.
