Scottish & Newcastle 'star chamber' to fend off Carlsberg approach

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) has created a 'star chamber' of senior board members to see off Carlsberg/Heineken's £6.8bn approach.

Officially labelled by an S&N spokesman as a 'steering committee of the board', the select group of executives charged with defending the brewer's independence is headed by newly-appointed chief executive John Dunsmore and includes chairman Sir Brian Stewart and non-executive director and banking expert Sir Angus Grossart.

News of the star chamber comes as both S&N and Carlsberg have stepped up the war of words over the future of the UK brewer.

S&N last week applied to a Swedish court for arbitration over what it claimed were breaches by Carlsberg to its Baltic Beverage Holdings (BBH) joint venture agreement. However the Danish brewer hit back immediately, arguing S&N's claims "had no merit".

S&N is now understood to be poised to call for an independent panel in Sweden to set the price at which Carlsberg may have to sell its 50 per cent stake in BBH, if the UK group wins its arbitration case.

Carlsberg has said the arbitration process could take more than 12 months to complete.

Some of S&N's leading UK free trade customers were expressing concern about the future of the group's brands if the Carlsberg/Heineken bid goes through.

"S&N's level of sales support in the free trade is second to none and is something any newcomer would have to match. I would be concerned whether Carlsberg or Heineken would be able," said one.