The Globe Pub Company is on the brink of being placed into administrative receivership, according to a company source.

Zolfo Cooper has been lined up as receiver to the Robert Tchenguiz-owned group. An announcement could be made as early as today, the source added.

The move could lead to Globe being sold to a new vehicle backed by Heineken, the Dutch brewer, which is understood to be prepared to pay £180 million for its assets. Mr Tchenguiz’s R20 investment group is expected to take a controlling stake in the new business, it was claimed last night.

In April, Globe defaulted on a £257 million asset-backed loan, enabling bondholders to seek the appointment of an administrator to run the business.

In the same month, Heineken, which has a 30-year beer supply contract with Globe, acquired a substantial chunk of the senior debt of the company. The acquisition gave Heineken a blocking stake, and thus a say in Globe’s future. It was the first time Heineken has bought a direct interest in a pub operator.

Globe was created four years ago after R20 bought 360 pubs from the Spirit group for £345 million.

Mr Tchenguiz has already had to put his separate Laurel Pub Company business into administration and has sold his stake in All Bar One and O'Neill’s operator Mitchells & Butlers at a big loss.

Heineken yesterday reported an increase in volumes in its British business in the latest sign that the embattled beer market is starting to stabilise.

The group, Britain’s biggest brewer after last year’s takeover of Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), said that in the third quarter its business in the UK had "grown volumes in both cider and beer on a relative basis".

Although Heineken does not break out its UK numbers, analysts estimated that its beer volumes had risen by 3-4 per cent, with volumes of Strongbow and Bulmers cider up by at least 10 per cent. Pricing is also understood to have firmed. Heineken, which has about 29 per cent of the British beer market, said that it had won market share in beer and cider, adding: "Improvement is visible".

Heineken has suffered a torrid time since it took over S&N about 18 months ago amid fallout from the smoking ban in pubs, the recession and rises in beer duty. The group has responded with an attack on costs, culminating in plans to close the Newcastle Brown Ale brewery in Gateshead.

The group, which has 125 breweries in 70 countries, raised its full-year profit forecast yesterday after reporting a 0.4 per cent decline in comparable operating profits in the quarter to €4.07 billion (£3.67 billion). Profits grew "in the mid-teens", as a 2.6 per cent increase in pricing offset a 3 per cent decline in volumes, prompting Heineken to lift its full-year growth estimate from "at least high single digits" to "low double-digit".

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