The Tennent’s beer brand could be sold as owner Anheuser-Busch Inbev seeks to reduce its multibillion-pound debts.
According to press reports, investment bank Lazard has been appointed to find buyers for the brand, which has about 60% of the Scottish lager market. The business has an estimated value of £85m.
Beer sales in Scotland are currently thought to be at their lowest level for more than half a century and the company has been forced to shelve new products as the recession bites.
AB INBev – the world’s biggest brewer since its creation last year in a $52bn deal – is thought to have raised close to half of the £4bn it aimed to realise from disposals by November this year. InBev took on debt totalling around £27.5bn debts with the acquisition.
The group, which also brews Belgian beer Stella Artois and Germany’s Beck’s, recently agreed to sell part of its US packaging business for about £350m.
No comments yet