The Mother of all Battles?

Such was speculation surrounding a possible bid for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) in recent months - years, even - that when the other shoe finally dropped in the form of Carlsberg/ Heineken's joint approach few blinked.

Few, that is, save the senior management team at S&N, members of whom have been spitting rocks since they got the call from Denmark a fortnight ago.

One might be equally frank in suggesting there will be the 'mother of all battles' in the coming weeks over who owns the UK brewer. No doubt both sides will increasingly seek to outdo the other with their respective strategies aimed at enhancing shareholder value.

Currently S&N shareholders are backing the board, but what about when Carlsberg/Heineken 'up' their offer - as surely they will, debt issues or no debt issues?

Politicians have predictably got in on the act, with Scottish MPs calling for any review of an official bid to be held in Edinburgh - although banging on about a threat to UK or even Scottish-based brewing interests looks a tad iffy, given that at the heart of the dispute is who gets to own Baltic Beverage Holdings, the most successful brewer in Russia.

Everyone I've spoken to argues that the UK is oversupplied with national brewers and the industry needs consolidation; the only disagreement, unsurprisingly, is over who it is that gets 'consolidated'.

I have no axe to grind either way in the takeover debate, but I do find the notion of one's business partner cosying up with a rival so as to take one over rather distasteful. But as I've said before - and make no apologies for repeating - that's capitalism for you.

It's hard, meanwhile, not to feel for John Dunsmore, S&N's newly appointed chief executive. Years spent working his way to the group's managerial summit, and now he could go down in history as having one of the corporate world's shortest tenures…