Debts push Lynch Hotel Group into examinership

THE Lynch Hotel Group, which employs 530 people in seven hotels in the west, gained court protection from its creditors yesterday as it tries to re-organise its finances.
Judge Mary Finlay Geoghegan appointed Michael McAteer of Grant Thornton as interim examiner of Ireland's largest family-run hotel group

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http://www.independent.ie/business/irish/debts-push-lynch-hotel-group-into-examinership-1838213.html

Lobby group lodges beer 'super-complaint'

CAMRA, the Campaign for Real Ale, has this morning tabled a "super-complaint" to the Office of Fair Trading relating to the supply of beer in pubs.
The move could spark a lengthy investigation by the competition watchdog into the activities of Britain’s biggest two pub operators, Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns, which together own about a fifth of the UK’s pubs.

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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/leisure/article6726050.ece

Le Big Mac Seduces France as Haute Cuisine Slides: Book Review

July 24 (Bloomberg) -- Go out to eat in France and you can be assured of a certain standard of food, from restaurants on the boulevards of Paris to corner eateries in provincial towns.
Yes, we’re talking McDonald’s Corp.
A total of 1,130 outlets serve 1.3 million customers a day. As of 2007, France was the most profitable market for McDonald’s outside the U.S. and annual sales there were growing at twice the rate of the U.S., according to the Oak Brook, Illinois-based company.

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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601205&sid=aCGy22ITtJac

Morton's Restaurant Group, Inc. Announces Settlement of Certain Wage and Hour Claims

CHICAGO, July 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morton's Restaurant Group, Inc. (NYSE: MRT - News) announced today that agreements have been reached to settle certain wage and hour claims against the Company and certain of its subsidiaries. The settlements involve claims filed against the Company as far back as 2003 and cover all of the remaining wage and hour litigation pending against the Company and its subsidiaries, including a nationwide class action filed in 2005. While the Company and its subsidiaries deny allegations underlying the claims, they have agreed to the settlements to avoid additional legal fees, uncertainty surrounding the litigation and the management time that would have been devoted to continued litigation. The settlements are subject to respective arbitrator and court approvals.

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http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mortons-Restaurant-Group-Inc-prnews-3730517112.html?x=0&.v=1

Chain Restaurant Same Store Sales Components Still Negative

We’ve recently listened carefully to McDonald's (MCD), Starbucks (SBUX), Chipotle (CMG), YUM, Dominos (DPZ) and Darden (DRI) earnings calls for news on sales/traffic/mix components. Brinker (EAT) and the upscale Morton’s (MRT) and Ruth Chris (RUTH) are forthcoming. Steak N Shake (SNS) and CKE reported Q3 sales via 8K filings. Not all companies disclose the same store sales components

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http://seekingalpha.com/article/150982-chain-restaurant-same-store-sales-components-still-negative?source=yahoo

Receivers called in for half-finished Foster-designed hotel

The half-completed £25m hotel on the Strand designed by Lord Foster of Thames Bank has gone into receivership after more than six months of inactivity.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has now been appointed receiver on controversial 11-storey development on the Strand, central London, which was to house a five-star hotel and 79 luxury apartments.

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http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/2009/07/24/328880/receivers-called-in-for-half-finished-foster-designed-hotel.html

Will Hotel Values Rise Next Year?

Not surprisingly, a panel of hotel valuation experts at the Midwest Lodging Investors Summit was unable to definitively answer the question embedded in the session’s title: What Is Your Hotel Worth Today? It wasn’t their individual or collective faults, however; the truth is that no one can say for sure what any particular hotel or portfolio of properties is worth today.

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http://nreionline.com/property/hotel/hotel_values_rise_0723/

St. Regis Foreclosure: Sign of More Troubled Times for Hotels

Hotel owners are under enormous economic pressure, especially those carrying a lot of maturing debt. The St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort in Orange County, CA, this week became the latest luxury hospitality property to be taken over by its lender when Citigroup Inc. seized the 400-room hotel after it fell into default on a $70 million mezzanine loan

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http://www.costar.com/News/Article.aspx?id=52E38CE07EFF430C3D2E091236B9AF4C

The Cheesecake Factory Reports Results for Second Quarter of Fiscal 2009

CALABASAS HILLS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul. 23, 2009-- The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ:CAKE) today reported financial results for the second quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended on June 30, 2009.
Total revenues were $407.9 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2009 as compared to $407.1 million in the prior year second quarter. Net income and diluted net income per share were $16.6 million and $0.28, respectively.

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http://investors.thecheesecakefactory.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=109258&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1311086&highlight=