Wet weather takes fizz out of Heineken

Dutch brewer Heineken yesterday warned that wet weather and the eurozone debt crisis had drained beer sales in Europe during the first half of the year.

But the beer maker, which broke up Scottish & Newcastle in 2008 with Danish rival Carlsberg, enjoyed a surge in sales in emerging markets, limiting the fall in its underlying interim profits to 4 per cent, taking them down to €705 million (£556.5m).

Heineken’s troubles in Europe highlight the importance of its fight to gain control of Tiger brewer Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) as it battles bid interest from rival Thai Beverage. Heineken chairman and chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said he is “working towards a swift completion” of the deal to buy partner Fraser & Neave’s stake in APB, which brews Tiger and distributes Heineken’s brands in prized southeast Asian markets.

The Dutch firm, which owns Edinburgh’s Caledonian Brewery, edged a step closer yesterday to sealing the deal by buying stakes from Singapore’s Temasek Holdings and other minor shareholders, taking its holding in APB to 44.6 per cent.