Seen and heard: what’s happening in business media

Aramark eyes Avoca US food services group Aramark Corporation is lining up a takeover bid for the Avoca retail chain, and could make an offer within weeks, according to the Sunday Times.

Aramark is one of a number of parties interested in buying Avoca from the Pratt family, and talks are said to be ongoing.

Avoca employs 800 people, with revenues of more than €57 million a year. It made a profit of €1.5 million in the year to January 2014.

Aer Lingus bid The Government is expected to approve IAG's €1.3 billion bid for Aer Lingus in its first cabinet meeting after the Easter break, the Sunday Business Post reported.

It said IAG is poised to offer a number of concessions and sweeteners to secure the deal. The new proposals are expected to be put to cabinet in the next two weeks and the takeover could be agreed in April.

If the deal gets Cabinet approval, the Government would seek Dáil backing for the sale of its 25.1 per cent stake.

Europe's "big problem" Italy's former prime minister Mario Monti described France as Europe's "big problem" to The Sunday Telegraph. He warned that anti-Brussels sentiment and rising populism there threatened to blow the bloc's Franco-German axis apart.

"France is the big problem of the European Union because the whole construct has been leveraged on the foundation of a solid Franco-German entente," he said. "If it isn't there, then there is a poor destiny for Europe."

Mr Monti also said the “humiliating” diktats of the EU-IMF troika had damaged the Greek economy.