Heineken may restate S&N's profit

LONDON (Reuters) - Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) is set to restate profit for newly acquired Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) by as much as 10 percent, after finding discrepancies in its accounts, the Sunday Telegraph reported, citing analysts.

Heineken executives have been meeting analysts to warn them to expect a restatement of S&N's UK accounts when Heineken reports half-year results at the end of August, the paper said.

Heineken could not immediately be reached for comment.

Heineken in January jointly agreed with Carlsberg (CARLb.CO: Quote, Profile, Research) a 7.8 billion pound-bid to carve up Britain's biggest brewer, but has since been criticised for the purchase, as it increases Heineken's exposure to slower-growing markets of Western Europe.

The Telegraph said a Heineken spokeswoman confirmed that Heineken was in the process of comparing the two brewers' accounting policies. "We are in general more conservative than S&N," she was quoted as saying, without elaborating.

Heineken has a more stringent approach to accounting than S&N, and there is no suggestion that S&N's finance team acted outside accounting regulations, the Telegraph said.

(Reporting by Hsu Chuang Khoo; Editing by Erica Billingham)