Heineken gets watchdog approval to buy Beamish

Fri Oct 3, 2008 6:41pm BST

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DUBLIN (Reuters) - Dutch brewer Heineken (HEIN.AS) said on Friday Ireland's Competition Authority had given unconditional approval for its purchase of Scottish & Newcastle's Irish unit Beamish & Crawford.

Heineken's Irish subsidiary said the watchdog had conducted an in-depth review over the last six months.

"Heineken Ireland welcomes this decision and will immediately engage with Beamish & Crawford to integrate both companies," it said in a statement.

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

Earlier this year the European Commission approved Heineken's purchase of S&N assets in Belgium, Finland, Portugal and Britain.

But it referred the question of the acquisition of the company's Irish assets to the local competition regulator.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by David Holmes)

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