Now Greene King swoops for Belhaven

August 22, 2005: Greene King is poised to buy up yet another UK brewery, confirming today that it has put in a bid for Scotland's biggest independent, Belhaven.

The respective boards of Belhaven and Greene King announced that they had reached agreement on an offer from the latter of 625p per Belhaven share.

The statement said: "The directors of Greene King believe that the acquisition of Belhaven not only represents an opportunity to maintain and develop the existing strengths of Belhaven as part of the enlarged Greene King Group, but also a unique opportunity to achieve instant scale in a market in which it has little presence currently."

However, it continued: "Whilst Greene King regards Belhaven in its own right as a business capable of delivering future, sustainable growth, opportunities for realising cost and revenue synergies also exist." And that's the bit that will concern the likes of the Campaign for Real Ale.

With the acquisition of Ridley's still stinging the consumer group, it is urging Belhaven shareholders to reject the Greene King bid.

"We are hugely disappointed at the prospect of losing Scotland’s largest independent brewery," said CAMRA's Scottish director Ken Davie.

"Belhaven is a successful independent Scottish company that brews excellent beer and runs excellent pubs.

“While we welcome Greene King’s intention to keep the brewery open, the loss of Belhaven as an independent company is a bitter blow to consumer choice and competition in Scotland.

"Greene King needs to reassure Scottish drinkers that they will continue to brew and promote Belhaven’s unique beers such as Belhaven 60/-."

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