RBS urged to free pubs from tie and sell to tenants

campaign has been launched urging the government and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to free the bank’s 1,000 pubs from tied agreements and allow tenants to buy their pubs.
Fair Pint and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) have set up the campaign and want RBS – of which the government has a 68 per cent stake – to offer mortgages to its licensees and sell the pubs at “realistic” prices.

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http://www.thepublican.com/story.asp?sectioncode=7&storycode=64565&c=1

Great Circle Emerges from Chapter 11; Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is Alive, Well and Expanding Again in Southern California

LOS ANGELES, July 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Great Circle Family Foods, LLC (the "Company" or "Great Circle"), the franchisee of Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corporation in Southern California, announced today that the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California has confirmed its Second Amended Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization (the "Plan").

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http://www.smartbrief.com/news/NRA/industryPR-detail.jsp?id=1AE0FC3A-537C-49F9-A88C-6C28B30B0DE1&sb_code=RSS&i=Specialty%20Eateries

Despite improved 2nd-Q results, Ruby feels investor indifference

MARYVILLE, Tenn. (July 20, 2009 ) —Ruby Tuesday Inc. posted another quarter of financial results that topped both corporate and Wall Street expectations, as both cost cutting and improved consumer traffic paid dividends for the struggling casual-dining company.

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http://www.nrn.com/article.aspx?id=370126

Wynn Resorts files for HK IPO of Macau unit

HONG KONG, July 21 (Reuters) - Las Vegas casino company Wynn Resorts has submitted an application to list its Macau unit on the Hong Kong exchange, sources said on Tuesday, hoping to raise between $500 million and $1 billion.
Reuters reported last month that Wynn was reviving its Macau IPO plans, a process that began last year.

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http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/07/21/afx6677997.html

Admiral to sell 14 more pubs

The pubs, described as ‘quality mid-range stock’, are primarily located in towns and villages in Gloucestershire, Berkshire, Worcestershire and Hampshire.
Prices vary from £125,000 to £395,000. All have planning permissions which would allow conversions into offices, shops or restaurants.

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http://www.morningadvertiser.co.uk/news.ma/article/83784

Blackstone wrote down Hilton by 49 pct at end '08

NEW YORK, July 20 (Reuters) - Private equity firm Blackstone Group (BX.N) wrote down its investment in Hilton Hotels by nearly half at the end of 2008, documents obtained by Thomson Reuters' private equity website peHUB show.
The $26 billion deal to buy Hilton was struck at the peak of the buyout bubble in July 2007 and was financed with $20.6 billion of debt and about $5.7 billion of equity. Since then, the hotel market has been hammered by the economic crisis as consumers and businesses have cut back on travel spending.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/privateEquity/idUSN2014772120090720

St. Regis Monarch Beach seized by Citigroup

The seizure of the St. Regis Monarch Beach, where American International Group Inc. sponsored a luxury retreat just days after accepting a federal bailout, is the most dramatic sign yet of the deep troubles in the market for high-end hotels.Citigroup Inc. took over the Dana Point hotel and golf course Monday after months of negotiations over a $70-million loan that was in default. A foreclosure auction slated for today was canceled after the lender realized there would be no serious bids for the property, according to a knowledgeable person who was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

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http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-stregis-foreclose21-2009jul21,1,4070255.story

British Hospitality Association publishes tips code

The British Hospitality Association has published its code of practice for restaurant service charges and is urging all restaurants and hotels to adopt it as soon as possible.
The code, drawn up by the BHA after discussion with the Department for Business, asks restaurants and hotels to make it clear to their customers – via a written note or on the company’s website – how service charges are distributed to staff.

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http://www.bighospitality.co.uk/item/3686

Montana resort for elite sold for $115 million

BILLINGS, Mont. — Montana's ultra-posh Yellowstone Club is in new hands, following a $115 million deal that the new owner hopes will close the door on the resort's much publicized descent into bankruptcy.
Eight months ago, the millionaires-only club was on the verge of liquidation, a victim of its prior owners' excesses and the broader economic downturn that choked off the flow of money fueling the club's rise.
On Friday, CrossHarbor Capital Partners of Boston bought the 13,600-acre private ski resort about 50 miles south of Bozeman at what was considered a bargain-basement price.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gzb_qDMdMX4uxxdyQrrogGGv082gD99GGM300

Fontainebleau Las Vegas moves to cancel conventions, worker contracts

With construction on its $2.9 billion resort halted, Fontainebleau Las Vegas is canceling numerous meetings and conventions scheduled there for the first half of 2010.
The cancellations were revealed in a Miami bankruptcy court filing Thursday in which Fontainebleau sought permission to cancel the meeting contracts.

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http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jul/17/fontainebleau-moves-cancel-conventions-worker-cont/

Lenders sue to recoup at least $145 million personally guaranteed by Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs after Shangri-La hotel project goes into foreclosure

RFR Holding partners Aby Rosen and Michael Fuchs are being sued for at least $145.6 million to repay a loan they personally guaranteed on a hotel project that is now in foreclosure.
Lenders ING Real Estate Finance and Swedbank AB filed to foreclose on the hotel project last month, but amended the complaint last week to exercise a clause that makes the duo as well as others personally liable for the loan, late fees and other expenses.

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http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20090716/FREE/907169975

Fortune can favour the brave as hotels’ recovery beckons

The hotel sector continues to be buffeted by the recession, with a number of operators failing and others facing uncertain futures.
This uncertainty among operators, owners and investors is pushing the sector back towards quality, brand and location basics. The demise of some gives opportunities for others. But for those who can restructure or find funding, now is a perfect time to grow and gain market share.

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http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article6719639.ece

New hotel defies recession

It will be London's biggest ever hotel in a generation, boasting 1,021 guest rooms in a dramatic glass-clad heart-shaped building at the southern end of Westminster Bridge.
When the £350m project is finished early next year, opening onto a new landscaped and pedestrianised area beside the former Greater London Council's headquarters it will mark the transformation of the polluted roundabout dominated by one of the capital's most unpopular buildings – a concrete GLC "overspill" office which lay empty and vandalised for more than twenty years.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jul/19/park-plaza-hotel-opening

Ruby Tuesday, Inc. Announces Common Stock Offering

MARYVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ruby Tuesday, Inc. (NYSE: RT) today announced it plans to publicly offer 10,000,000 shares of its common stock. In addition, it intends to grant the underwriters a 30 day option to purchase up to 1,500,000 additional shares to cover over-allotments, if any. The offering is being conducted as a public offering pursuant to an effective registration statement under the Securities Act of 1933. Proceeds will be used to pay down debt. Wells Fargo Securities and BofA Merrill Lynch are joint book-running managers and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey and Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. are co-managers of the offering.

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http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090720005446&newsLang=en

Investigators sift for clues from Indonesia bombs

JAKARTA, July 18 (Reuters) - Investigators were sifting through two bomb-damaged luxury Indonesian hotels on Saturday, for clues to those behind suicide attacks that shattered four years of stability in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

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http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/07/18/afx6671141.html