CK Asset Holdings of Hong Kong has struck a £4.6bn deal to buy Greene King. The announcement of the 850p a share deal saw Greene King shares soar more than 50% (Financial Times £). The deal is equivalent to £1m for each of Greene King’s 2,700 pubs, restaurants and hotels (The Guardian). The “frothy” offer is more about infrastructure than beer, says Lex in the (Financial Times £).

The buyer said it had no intention of cutting jobs (Sky News). Markets.com said the real value lay in the property (The Telegraph). The Times (£) notes the deal comes hard on the heels of EI group’s £3bn sale to Stonegate Pub Company last week. The BBC adds that the Campaign for Real Ales has said more people are drinking at home to save money and younger people are drinking less alcohol in general.

Juul Labs has raised $325m in new funding through a bridge financing structured as a convertible note. The US ecigarette start-up plans international expansion (Financial Times £). Juul did not say in the filing how much it had raised from selling equity and how much had come from debt (The Times £). “Vaping attracts fresh funding despite new lawsuits”, reports the BBC.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating a “cluster” of lung illnesses that it believes may be linked to e-cigarette use (Reuters). Twenty-eight states have reported 94 possible cases of severe lung illness tied to vaping, primarily among teenagers and young adults. Of those cases, 30 occurred in Wisconsin.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has pulled disputed public statements from its website in a legal settlement with Kraft Heinz and Mondelez. The CFTC’S $16m fine and court-approved consent order against Kraft Heinz and Mondelez International last week resolved civil charges alleging the companies had rigged wheat prices, but less than a day later the food giants accused the CFTC of violating the order. Key CFTC personnel were ordered to testify at a hearing on the claims and the agency voluntarily removed the disputed statements from its website (Financial Times £).

Shoppers are failing to pick up £228m of goods a year that they order through click and collect, a Barclaycard and Decathlon survey has found. One in seven shoppers said they had failed to collect a parcel The Times (£). Shoppers say long waiting times and poorly-staffed collection points put them off (Sky News).

Sainsbury’s shares gained nearly 5% in early trading yesterday amid fiercely-denied claims that it had started looking for a new chief executive (The Daily Mail).

Canadian ecommerce company Shopify plans to move into logistics after enjoying rapid growth to overtake eBay and has set its sights on challenging Amazon’s dominance (Financial Times £).

Farmers in the parched Loire valley are grappling with the climate change threat. Cattle farmers have diversified their income as pressure grows to reduce meat consumption that contributes to global warming (Financial Times £).

Decades of intense competition for Japanese purses has resulted in more deflationary pressure in shop retailing and favours growth by acquisition says the Financial Times (£) in a Lex opinion piece that focuses on the convenience market. It notes that Family Mart bought a further 10% stake in discounter Don Quijote’s holding company Pan Pacific International last week, to take its stake to 15%.

Imperial Brands faces a tough task convincing investors if it can carve out a future in tobacco alternatives. The threat of tougher regulation, slow innovation and a stretched balance sheet have hammered the stock says Lex in the Financial Times (£).

IHS Markit’s household finance index shows confidence has fallen from 44.3 in July to 43.7 in August – its lowest level in three months (The Times £). Uncertainty over Brexit, the political environment and the increased possibility of recession appeared to have dented expectations, it said (The Guardian).

Uber has appointed Melinda Roylett as Tom Elvidge’s replacement as general manager in the UK and Ireland. The 39-year-old joins from digital payments business Square (The Times £).

Hotel Chocolat is among a handful of retailers bucking the malaise on the high street – creating shops that are in themselves “destinations”, (The Daily Mail).

YouTube star Elijah Quashie, who is better known as the Chicken Connoisseur, has dismissed knife crime warnings on takeaway chicken boxes as racist (BBC).

Internal local council planning documents the BBC has seen shows legal school meal nutrition standards might have to be amended or discarded in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Many councils say school meal costs will increase in the event of a no-deal.

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