S&N purchase hits Heineken profit

Dutch brewer Heineken has reported a slight dip in half-year profits as a result of the cost of its part purchase of UK firm Scottish & Newcastle (S&N).

Heineken and Denmark's Carlsberg bought S&N for £7.8bn in a joint deal in April this year, with Heineken taking control of S&N's UK operations.

The cost of the deal meant Heineken's net profit for the first half of 2008 fell 1.5% to 540m euros ($794m; £431m).

At the same time, S&N's sales helped Heineken's revenues rise by 17.1%.

Revenues for the group totalled 6.4bn euros, up from 5.5bn euros a year earlier.

"This is a good first half performance, demonstrating our competitiveness against a background of weaker economies and increased input costs," said Heineken chief executive Jean-Francois.

"The integration of the Scottish & Newcastle businesses into Heineken is proceeding swiftly," he added.

"We have identified an additional £25m of synergies and we have the people, brands and ideas that will allow us to fully exploit our leadership of the highly profitable European beer market."