Pizza Hut UK on verge of £100m sale: The British wing of Pizza Hut is on the verge of being sold by its private equity backers for about £100m. City sources said the sale of the company’s UK franchise could be announced in the next few weeks, though there are still hurdles to overcome before the proposed takeover is completed. UK-based private equity firm Rutland Partners is understood to be in advanced talks to sell the business to Pricoa, a debt investor owned by the American insurer Prudential Financial, reports The Sunday Times. The takeover would mark a bumper return for Rutland Partners, which in 2012 paid just £1 to rescue Pizza Hut from the brink of collapse under its previous owner, Yum! Brands. Since then, Rutland has spent £60m refurbishing the British franchise of the company. The UK operation was first put up for sale early last year. Rutland came under fire in April over its former ownership of the poultry farmer Bernard Matthews. The farmer’s £75m pension scheme was passed to the Pension Protection Fund after Rutland sold it in a controversial pre-pack administration deal.

Coopland receives £8.5m to fund expansion: Bakery company Coopland & Son has received £8.5m from the Business Growth Fund to fuel expansion. Coopland & Son was founded in 1885 and runs 140 shops, 11 cafes and 28 sandwich vans across Yorkshire, Lincolnshire and the north east. It remains in family hands four generations later. Coopland plans to use the Business Growth Fund money to open 30 shops in the next three years, explore acquisitions and improve its production bases in Scarborough, Durham and Hull, reports The Sunday Times.