Hamish Champ: Bye bye, S&N

Tomorrow (Monday) sees the Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) extraordinary general meeting at which shareholders will in all probability most likely give their assent to Carlsberg/Heineken £7.6bn-odd takeover bid.

Assuming Carlsberg and Heineken investors give the bid the green light too within a month or so S&N will no longer be a British company.

A number of readers have already expressed their disgust that S&N has joined the litany of UK businesses falling into foreign hands, but then you know my own views on this one.

I think more important than whether a company is owned by someone who hails from these islands or somewhere abroad is what they propose to do with the business once they have it fully in their possession.

Clearly there are concerns about S&N's jobs, although the brewer had already announced a number of cost-cutting measures that are going to result in redundancies.

Will many in current senior management positions stay in situ? We'll have to wait and see. There'll be some nice payoffs for some, no doubt, and the dole queue shouldn't be a worry for those ex-board members who depart.

Further down the ranks, however, concerns remain.

Everyone wants to know what Heineken's plans to do with S&N's key brands and the people who make the stuff. And what it intends doing with the pubs S&N operates through its Pub Enterprises business.

The Dutch brewer's senior management has already indicated it is looking favourably on holding onto most, if not all of the pubs. This isn't so surprising, since it offers a ready-made market for its own beer brands.

It has also said it like the cider business. Bulmers is stealing market share from under Magners' nose in sections of the marketplace and Heineken wants more of the same, thank you very much.

What it does with the likes of John Smiths and Fosters… well, that's something else. Sure, they're still popular products, and I can't see Heineken dumping them any time soon. But where's the incentive to market them as much as its own products?

At least any disposals should be an opportunity for someone else to take up the reins.Meanwhile...

The comment pages of thepublican.com​ were fit to bust last week with the number of people writing in about the Laurel Pub Company - first over its pub closures and then its administration situation.

Some people I spoke to in the industry last week were furious about the deal to immediately buy back most of the pubs the group had put into the hands of the administrators. Much of what was said is unrepeatable.

I'm sure everything was done above board. But it didn't look great, did it?

That said, financial engineering is part of our economy these days. Just look at the way hedge funds are now piling back into Mitchells & Butlers, anticipating that a deal involving the O'Neills operator will be done, despite Punch Taverns walking away from the table last week.

Such goings-on might not smell very... fragrant, but I doubt the government is in much of a mood to do anything about it…