in brief

S&N plans sale

Scottish & Newcastle, which hopes to complete its acquisition of Greenalls'pub business by next month, is hoping to raise £400m through the sale of up to900 pubs.

Enterprise Inns and Punch Taverns are among the companies understood to be showing initial interest.

More Mash

Gruppo has acquired a site in London's Camden to open another Mash restaurant next year. Work on the building, formerly the York & Albany pub, is due to start in January with completion expected in the autumn.The restaurant is to have120 seats, a micro brewery and a bar with a further 180 seats. Before then, chairman Oliver Peyton is hoping to open a Mash in the City of London and possibly also in Brighton.

Travel Inn for Bristol

Whitbread has been given planning permission to turn the old headquarters ofAvon County Council in central Bristol into a224-bedroom Travel Inn hotel. The 18-storey block, which became surpluswhen the council was abolished under the local government reorganisation in 1996, will be one of the chain's largest hotels.

Browns too small

Bass has put a for saletag over London's first Browns restaurant in Draycott Avenue in Chelsea. A spokeswoman for thegroup said the 65-seat restaurant has been put on the market because it was too small, but there are no plans to sell any others. Staff are to be relocated to other Browns restaurants in London.