Group Lotus, the sports car and engineering concern majority owned by Proton of Malaysia, is to sell a Coventry consultancy engineering business it bought only two years ago. ... [more]

French restaurant operator, Groupe Flo, owner of the Cafe Flo brasserie chain, has decided to sell its nine London brasseries prompted by sliding sales. ... [more]

Leading Canadian and US beer companies have entered the race to buy Carling, the UK’s leading lager brand, which Belgian drinks company Interbrew has been forced to sell by the UK government. ... [more]

Cedar Group, the troubled software company which issued a profits warning last week, has put Sword, its bingo gaming subsidiary, up for sale to avoid breaching its banking covenants. ... [more]

Whitbread has reopened talks with other bidders for its Curzon fitness clubs chain, in case the favoured buyer, a consortium led by P.R. guru Matthew Freud,is unable to complete the deal. The chain is... [more]

Pernod Ricard, the French drinks company, is currently in talks to dispose of its BWG grocery distribution operation. It is selling a number on non-core assets to focus solely on alcoholic drinks. ... [more]

Highbury House Communications has acquired DMG World Media's Power Portfolio of magazines for £0.8m in order to expand its Cumulus Business Media subsidiary... [more]

Seascope is to acquire Braemar Tankers the tanker broking company for £7.3m as part of a strategy to create one of the world's largest ship broking and marine professional services groups... [more]

Textflow is expanding its Belfast-based printing business with the acquisition of the Northern Ireland operations of logistics company Astron... [more]

Marlborough Stirling is to acquire Exchange FS the operator of trading platforms for £87m in order to expand its financial services software business... [more]

Privately owned Just Learning, a nursery business, has appointed BDO Stoy Hayward to find a buyer for the chain. It is expected to fetch between £10m and £20m.... [more]

Chorion, the leisure and media business, is in talks that could lead to a break up of Whizalpha, the £180m nightclubs business owned by Candover, the venture capital group. ... [more]

The computer companies Hewlett-Packard and Compaq will offer to sell off part of their £11bn server business if regulators stand in the way of their £60bn deal. It is believed that in some areas the c... [more]

Atlantic Telecom has put itself up for sale, but has warned that it is unable to determine the value of its shares amid an everlasting wrangle with bondholders calling for the company to wind itself u... [more]

Brake-fluid-to-drinks dispensers group IMI is to sell businesses accounting for 35% of its turnover. The 10 businesses on offer include a copper and plastic pipe manufacturer and IMI’s building produc... [more]

Pirelli, the Italian tyre and cable maker, is to sell parts of its business empire in a £1bn+ disposal programme. Investment bank Lazard has been appointed to sell Pirelli Energy Cables & Systems, lik... [more]

Woolworths’ head office has been put up for sale by Kingfisher. The split between Kingfisher and Woolworths’ was completed last month but this property is still owned by Kingfisher’s retail property s... [more]

Shearings Holidays, the coach company that takes pensioners on package breaks, is being put up for sale at £130m. Shearings has already attracted interest from 3i, part owner of Wallace Arnold, First ... [more]

Cromwells Madhouse, the discount menswear retailer, has put itself up for sale with an estimated price tag of up to £15m. Cavendish Corporate Finance has been appointed to find a buyer for the busines... [more]

Jigsaw Group, a leading chain of private nursery schools, is on sale for up to £60m. Investment bank SG Hambros have been appointed to sell the business. ... [more]