United Kingdom: Heineken purchases £60.2 mln of debt in a pub company in order to protect its supply contract - sources

Dutch brewing giant Heineken has boosted its presence in the UK pub sector with the purchase of £60.2 mln of debt in Globe Pub Company, The Grocer reported on April, 20.

Heineken has paid an undisclosed sum for the stake, although the Financial Times reports that it was acquired at a substantial discount.

Although Heineken called the purchase of securitised debt a “purely financial decision”, insiders suggest Heineken purchased the debt in order to protect the supply contracts it has in place with Globe.

“If Globe was forced to go into administration, then the administrators could well bring another operator in to run the business and Heineken would no longer have the exclusivity to sell its beers to the chain,” one source said.

The move follows Heineken’s joint takeover of Scottish & Newcastle with Carlsberg’s last April.

Globe, which is owned by Robert Tchenguiz, fell into trouble earlier this month after defaulting on loans worth £257 mln.