UB, in which the Dutch brewer acquired a 37.5% holding last year, will also get a one-time fee of Rs3bn after settling differences over the role of Heineken in the Indian company, the newspaper said.
Heineken had got the UB holding following a takeover with Carlsberg of the Indian brewer’s erstwhile partner, Scottish & Newcastle. A spokesman for the UB group said he couldn’t comment on the report without checking with founder Vijay Mallya, who was travelling overseas.
The deal will see UB adding two premium beers, Heineken and Tiger, to its portfolio. UB sells the popular Kingfisher brand and has more than half of the Indian beer market, which grew 10% in the last financial year.
The local operations of Asia Pacific Breweries, Heineken’s Singapore affiliate, is likely to be brought under the UB fold leading to a consolidation of the two companies’ beer operations in India, the newspaper reported.
“We dont comment on market speculation,” the paper quoted a Heineken spokesperson as saying.
Source: Reuters
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