Heineken is set to assume the mantle of Britain's biggest brewer after teaming up with Carlsberg to launch a recommended bid for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) worth more than £10 billion.

The 800p-a-share bid, announced to the Stock Exchange at 7 this morning, will bring down the curtain on 259 years of independence for S&N, which is to be carved up by continental suitors within 12 months.

Although a counterbid from the likes of Anheuser-Busch or SABMIller remains a possibility, analysts believe that the price being paid by the bidding consortium, which is 80p more than its first offer in October last year, is unlikely to be topped.

Shares of S&N was up 18.5p to 784.5p in afternoon trading — below the offer price — suggesting the market believes that a rival offer is unlikely.

The shares were trading at 637p before the first approach in the autumn.

In the event of a rival bid, Carlsberg and Heineken would receive a break fee of £780 million, or 1 per cent of S&N's equity value.

Yesterday the three companies asked the Takeover Panel for an extra 24 hours to finalise a deal, giving them until midday today to agree terms.

The main outstanding issue that remained to be resolved was a fine tuning of the split of the cost.

Due diligence is understood to have thrown up a query over the allocation of profits between S&N’s operations in France, which will be swallowed by Carlsberg, and the UK, which Heineken is buying. Profits from France are understood to have been worse than expected.

Under the proposed deal, Carlsberg, which is being advised by Lehman Brothers, is expected to fund about 56 per cent of the purchase, with its Dutch partner paying 44 per cent.

The Danish brewer is planning a DKr31.5 billion (£3.15 billion) rights issue, which has been underwritten by BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Lehman Brothers and Nordea.

Heineken, which is being advised by Credit Suisse, has secured debt finance from a consortium led by Credit Suisse, Bank of America, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Fortis, HSBC, ING and JPMorgan Chase.

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