Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), Britain’s biggest brewer, made a fresh counter-attack against its two Continental suitors yesterday by accusing Heineken of “indirectly misusing” confidential details of S&N’s Russian joint venture with Carlsberg.

Under the terms of the bidding consortium’s 750p-a-share takeover proposal, Carlsberg would assume outright control of the Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) venture by acquiring S&N’s 50 per cent share in the business.

But at a presentation in Copenhagen yesterday, John Dunsmore, S&N’s chief executive, claimed that Carlsberg had breached the terms of their BBH joint venture by “misusing confidential information for its offer” and suppressing information on BBH that could help its shareholders to assess its value.

Mr Dunsmore for the first time also turned his guns on Heineken, claiming it was “indirectly misusing this confidential information by participating in the consortium”.

A source close to S&N stopped short of accusing Carlsberg of sharing confidential information on BBH with its Dutch bidding partner, but insisted: “You can’t evaluate the bid split without having full details on BBH.”

A spokesman for the bidding consortium said: “Any suggestion that Heineken have seen or been privy to any of that information is completely untrue.”

S&N’s claims effectively flesh out its previous assertion that Carlsberg has breached the BBH shareholders’ agreement. It has launched a formal claim to take control of BBH under a Swedish arbitration process and has said that it could bring in a minority financial partner to help it fund a deal.

The arbitration claim, which Carlsberg has dismissed as without merit, is expected to take at least until next summer to resolve. Mr Dunsmore said: “We are confident of our legal position. We have a robust case for taking control of BBH.”

Carlsberg this week attempted to argue that it could not be in breach of the shareholders’ agreement because its stake in BBH was held through Pripps Ringnes, its Swedish subsidiary.

Mr Dunsmore dismissed the argument as “legally misguided”. He said that Carlsberg’s joint bid for S&N was a clear breach of the joint venture as it was an attempt to circumvent the so-called shotgun arrangment, under which one party can offer to buy out the other. The bidding consortium last week raised its indicative bid for S&N from 720p a share to 750p, valuing the John Smith’s and Kronenbourg 1664 brewer at £7.3 billion, or about £9.7 billion including debt and pension liabilities.

S&N has dismissed the bid, claiming that it grossly undervalues the company. In particular, it has argued that it takes no account of the growth prospects of BBH and has called on Carlsberg to release full details of BBH forecasts to allow its shareholders to assess its value.

Edinburgh-based S&N was given a boost this week when Legal & General, its third-biggest shareholder with a stake of more than 4.5 per cent, called for “greater transparency on BBH so as to to be in a position to fully evaluate the bid”. However, Carlsberg said that releasing such information would be “commercial suicide”.

Shares of S&N added 7p to 731p, amid whispers that Heineken may be starting to get cold feet. Dutch sources claimed it was becoming uncomfortable about the BBH situation. However, a source close to the consortium insisted the Dutch brewer was still confident of its position.

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