The Financial Times announces the launch of its annual Lunch with the FT restaurant promotion, ‘Take a Friend for a Fiver’. Launched on the 10th January, the promotion, in association with Harden’s restaurant guide, will offer readers the chance to take a friend to a leading restaurant for five pounds.

Run between the 10 January and 13 February, diners will be asked to make a booking quoting ‘Lunch with the FT’ and to then produce three tokens from the newspaper for each couple dining. The bill for food will be halved and a five pound charge will be added for the second diner.* Over 150 of Britain’s finest restaurants are participating including Nahm, Scott’s, Umu, Vineyard at Stockcross, Daphne’s and the Ivy.

After enjoying lunch, the FT is inviting readers to provide feedback online to help the FT select the FT Readers’ Favourite Restaurants. All entries will be judged with the winner seeing their review published in the FT Weekend and winning a trip for two to Cognac, courtesy of Remy Martin.*

Andy Davis, Editor of FT Weekend, said, “The FT’s annual lunch promotion continues to be incredibly popular with our readers and participating restaurants. 2009 looks like being no exception with the added interest of the selection of an influential list of the FT Readers’ Favourite Restaurants.”

The Financial Times is supporting the reader offer with posters for retailers and restaurants, and print and online advertising. A special microsite, giving details of the promotion and listing participating fine dining restaurants, has been created and can be viewed online at: www.ft.com/lunch. The initiative will also be supported through promotion on Jazz FM.

Two tokens will be available at the launch of the promotion in the FT Weekend on 10 January with two tokens then appearing in each edition of the FT Weekend until 7 February. Single tokens will also be available in the FT weekday edition from 12 January until 13 February.

* Please see the promotion’s terms and conditions at www.ft.com/lunch

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For further information, please contact:

Lizzie Allen, Financial Times, 020 7873 4463 or lizzie.allen@ft.com

Tom Glover, Financial Times, 020 7775 6840 or tom.glover@ft.com

About The Financial Times:

The Financial Times, one of the world’s leading business news organisations, is recognised internationally for its authority, integrity and accuracy. Providing extensive news, comment and analysis, the newspaper is printed at 24 print sites across the globe, has a daily circulation of 448,523 (ABC figures, November 2008) and a readership of 1.3 million people worldwide. FT.com is the definitive home for business intelligence on the web, providing an essential source of news, comment, data and analysis for the global business community. FT.com attracts 7.1 million unique users, generating 72 million page views (ABCe figures, March 2008).