Baltka Breweries

Balitka Breweries, a Russian unit of Scottish & Newcastle PLC and Carlsberg AS’s Baltic Beverages Holding AB joint venture, has reported a firsthalf profit rise of 46% to €81.4m, on a sales increase of 23.6% to €449.6m.

Baltika’s beer volume grew 22.1% during H1 to 10.8mhl. The company’s confident outlook for the full year remains unchanged at a full-year volume growth forecast of 3-5%

Pub and brewer Greene King has agreed an acquisition deal with Belhaven, one of the last listed regional pub and brewing groups without family shareholders, worth £254m including Belhaven’s debt. Belhaven owns 270 pubs across Scotland. Shares had risen by 27% since the start of the year, and 11% in the last three months to Friday’s close, before Greene King’s 625p/share cash offer was announced.

Property investor Robert Tchenguiz has sold 127 tenanted and leased pubs to the privately owned Admiral Taverns group. The pubs were sold by the Globe pub company, owned by Tchenguiz’s investment vehicle R20. Globe acquired the pubs when it bought Heritage, an estate of 231 pubs for £80m in June. No details of the deal have been confirmed, but analysts estimate that Admiral paid around £35m in total – or just under £28,000 per pub.