S&N shareholders vote 99 to 1 in favour of takeover

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) chairman Sir Brian Stewart described today's decision by shareholders to approve Carlsberg and Heineken's takeover of the group as "momentous and historic".

The voting at today's extraordinary shareholder meeting in Edinburgh went 99 per cent in favour of the £8 a share bid.

Stewart said that while there was "sadness at the passing of two and a half centuries of brewing history", there was great pride throughout the group.

"Pride in our people in building such a valuable and desirable global business; pride that our strong brands and the S&N spirit will continue; pride that the vast majority of our colleagues will have new opportunities in the businesses in which they will play an integral part and pride that we achieved a strong price for shareholders in increasingly weak world markets," he said.

The decision by S&N shareholders to accept the £7.8bn bid still has to be approved by the courts, but neither side is anticipating any hurdles being put in the way of the deal being completed by the end of April as planned.

While there is a degree of uncertainty over the future for S&N's head office in Edinburgh, where today's meeting was held, the group is bullish about the prospects for staff elsewhere in the company under the new owners.

It is expected a number of senior S&N management including chief executive John Dunsmore will leave the company, although it expected they will be handsomely rewarded for their time with the group.

The wider world also has yet to hear whether Heineken proposes to keep the name 'Scottish & Newcastle'.

Heineken will be looking to build on its current one per cent share of the UK beer market, and get to grips with a pub estate numbering nearly 2,200 sites.