Irish watchdog to probe Heineken buy of Beamish

Fri Aug 1, 2008 1:01pm BST

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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland's Competition Authority said on Friday it would conduct an in-depth investigation of Dutch brewer Heineken's (HEIN.AS) purchase of Scottish & Newcastle's Irish unit Beamish & Crawford Plc.

Heineken and Denmark's Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) agreed this year to buy S&N for 7.8 billion pounds to carve up the country's biggest brewer, whose products included Foster's, Kronenbourg and Beamish stout.

"Following a preliminary (phase 1) investigation, the Competition Authority has been unable to conclude without further investigation that the transaction will not substantially lessen competition," it said in a statement.

The watchdog said it would decide on the matter by November 3 at the latest.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Editing by David Holmes)

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