S&N ruling deadline extended

THE European Commission has extended the deadline it had given itself to sanction Dutch beer giant Heineken's takeover of parts of Scottish & Newcastle's business.

Originally the deadline was set at March 18 but has now been pushed back to April 4 after Ireland asked that the part of the takeover involving business within its territory be referred to it.

The Edinburgh-based brewer has agreed a £7.8 billion takeover by Danish beermaker Carlsberg and Heineken.

The pair plan to carve up S&N, with Carlsberg securing outright control of Russia-based brewer BBH, in which it had shared a joint venture with S&N.

Heineken will land S&N's domestic business, along with its operations in other European markets such as Belgium, Portugal and Ireland, plus its US and Indian businesses.