Carlsberg launches rights issue

Fri May 16, 2008 6:11am BST

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SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) is launching a 30.5 billion crown (3.3 billion pound) rights issue to repay part of the debt financing used to buy UK-based rival Scottish & Newcastle, the company announced in a statement late on Thursday. The Copenhagen-based brewer will offer the shares on a one for one basis at 400 crowns each, a 40 percent discount to the closing price of 666 crowns on Wednesday.

The rights issue is fully underwritten by BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), Danske Bank (DANSKE.CO), Lehman Brothers LEH.N, and Nordea Bank (NDA.ST).

Carlsberg and Dutch rival Heineken (HEIN.AS) agreed this year to buy Scottish & Newcastle for 7.8 billion pounds ($15.3 billion) carving up Britain's biggest brewer.

(Writing by Louise Heavens; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)

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