What does 2015 have in store in terms of restaurant and bar transactions? Business advisory specialist BDO gives its verdict. “Our view is that deal activity will continue, if not increase. At the time of writing there are a number of deals rumoured to be either imminent or on the blocks in the near future. “The UK arm of TGI Friday’s has attracted significant interest, and the likes of Ed’s Easy Diner, Gordon Ramsay, Las Iguanas and Yo! Sushi (pictured) are all reported to have appointed advisers with a view to a potential sale. In addition, the likes of Bill’s, Abokado, Chaophraya, Honest Burger, Red’s True BBQ and Loungers continue to be linked with potential sale or further investment. “Simon French, leisure analyst at Cenkos, expects 2015 to be a buoyant one for transactions: “We expect to see an acceleration in M&A as Boards readjust their strategies in the light of increasing supply, cautious consumers and an uncertain regulatory backdrop. There is also likely to be a competitive response to Greene King’s acquisition of Spirit Pub Company.”

“Public markets have proven to be a viable option once again and a number of concepts are known to be considering a flotation. In terms of private equity (PE), there is little doubt that institutional investors will remain prominent in the sector. As well as ‘traditional’ factors that make the sector attractive to PE (e.g cash generation, scalability, clear exit routes), debt markets have loosened, giving the private equity houses additional firepower. “As BDO’s debt advisory director Ross McDonald explains: “Heightened liquidity has resulted in leverage debt multiples gradually rising, but, despite this, gearing ratios on new deals remain some way short of those seen back in 2007. At the same time economists have predicted interest rates will remain at historic lows for the foreseeable future. Therefore, assuming there are no major economic shocks, we expect these borrower friendly trends will continue into 2015.” “This is a positive from a PE and corporate point of view in terms of funding a deal, and from an operator’s point of view in terms of achieving a decent multiple on sale.

Added to that, trade buyers are showing a renewed interest in the sector, which should drive competitive tension on bids for prized assets. juegos de sushi chef gratis onlineMarston’s has recently announced a wish to invest in casual dining chains, and others are known to be searching the market for acquisitions.jogos de fazer sushi online gratis “All of which suggests a buoyant market for buyers and sellers alike. where to get sushi grade fish londonBoth have access to capital that can be used to enhance and expand a brand and estate. healthiest option at sushi train

The most successful deals are those where investor and operator goals are aligned.where to buy sushi ingredients in kansas city “Market conditions suggest that there is growth capital available and investors are keen on the sector – if operators are keen to expand and grow their brand, now is the time to do it.game online memasak sushi terbaru View BDO’s Winter Restaurants and Bars Report here.watch sushi the global catch online freeFacebook Deals, similar to Foursqaure’s Check-In Offers, launches in Europe from Monday 31st Jan. One of the first up is Argos, who are using it for charity donations. The first 10,000 people to check in through Facebook Places will see £1 each being donated to the Teenage Cancer Trust.

With 1/3rd of the company’s sales coming through their website, and 60,000 plus fans on Facebook, it looks like Argos will find their 10,000 check-in’s pretty quickly. Whilst the Argos deal is the most high profile, other brands including Debenhams, O2, Alton Towers and Mazda are also taking iniatives. who are offering 5 free plates and a drink for those checking in to selected restaurants. At a time when retail sales are taking a plunge in the UK, Facebook Deals may help drive some business back to the high street. The first Android phone with 3D, naked eye screen has been branded by Disney. It will be available in Japan initially, where it was shown at a trade show. Based on the Sharp Galapagos 003SH it has a wide range of functions as well as access to the Disney Market, a version of the Android Market. More on it here. All the signs are there that the next iPhone will include contactless: Richard Doherty, director of consulting firm Envisioneering Group who work on NFC hardware, told Bloomberg that the next iPhones/iPads will have NFC.

AppleInsider has discovered that Apple this week put out a call for an engineer with NFC experience. Apple filed a number of NFC related patents in 2010. Aside from all these signs, NFC makes a lot of sense for Apple. At the moment their itunes store pays massive transaction charges for purchases bought on credit cards. Though highly profitable, it would be much cheaper for Apple to see more NFC payments which would debit a bank account and reducing their transaction costs. Google have already added NFC to their Nexus S, but the addition of a contactless iPhone will make the technology almost inevitable. The infrastructure of contactless is appearing in many countries – aside from Japan and Korea who have had contactless phones for years, the US now has 750,000 contactless payment terminals. In the UK similar NFC devices are being rolled out in numerous shops and restaurants where there are 42,500 contactless payment points. Barclaycard and Everything Everywhere (Orange and T-Mobile) re-announced their plans to deliver a contactless handset from April 2011.

With the payment technology added to phones there technological barriers to contactless will be removed. Of course, there is still one big ‘if’ with the whole – will users want to adopt it? It looks like the handset manufacturers (and banks and operators) are assuming they will. However, mobile is littered with technologies that users weren’t interested in (in spite of Face Time, how many people actually make a video call?). When it comes to NFC payments the big question from users will be security. How easy will it be for someone to get hold of my money? I really can’t make up my mind whether this is the best or the worst idea ever. It’s the NFC shoe. Fashion house WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy (there’s a catchy name if I ever heard one), have embeded an RFID chip into a shoe. It allows the wearer to walk over pads to trigger a number of actions: take a photo and send it to Flickr, add a friend to Facebook. I’ve never been one for wearable technology – most of them make people look stupid, but this has the advantage of being invisible.

Given that the next couple of years will be big for contactless, maybe, just maybe the contactless shoe will catch on. So far, Google’s attempts at social media have been something of a failure. Google Buzz annoyed many people and was seen as a breach of privacy. Latitude had the same problem. When it comes down to it, Google are a search company and not a social media company. However their focus on local search as led to an interesting new product. Hotpot shows recommendations on Google maps. Now they have added a function to see your friends local recommendations. This could be a good idea. We often value our friends recommendations so why not include them in their maps? It’s not a fully fleged social network a la Facebook, but nonetheless this could be their way in. It will be available in the web and Android versions of their maps. A while back, I argued that Foursquare is not social media at all, but it’s actually a game. Yes, it has the tools of social media, but when you look at how people interact with it, it’s the gaming element of becoming mayor that keeps users engaged.

There’s an interesting interview with (the very geeky) CEO of SCVNGR (what have they got against vowels?) explaining the difference between what they are doing and the Gowalla/Foursquare approach. The key difference is the challenge element and making each check-in different. When you consider that this is actually what keeps the Foursquare users engaged, the it looks like SCVNGR have nailed it. You can view the interview here: The Google Mobile mobile ads blog has given some insight into the countries that generate the most traffic to their mobile Ad network, AdMob. The 80:20 rule still seems to apply, with just 17 countries out of 190 served, providing 80% of the traffic. Whilst North America is the biggest region, Asia takes second place, with Europe in third. Surprisingly India saw the most ads served in Asia. Although the country has a large mobile population, it is generally represented by lower end handsets and small data usage. However this shows the trend towards more smartphones and a growing middle class population.