The paper also said S&N, which has rejected a 7.6 billion pounds ($14.9 billion) takeover approach from Carlsberg <CARLb.CO> and Heineken <HEIN.AS>, had received approaches from private equity firms Blackstone <BX.N> and Texas Pacific Group.
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch <BUD.N> has approached British peer Scottish & Newcastle Plc <SCTN.L> about helping it in any bid for full control of Baltic Beverages Holding, The Sunday Times newspaper reported.
The paper also said S&N, which has rejected a 7.6 billion pounds ($14.9 billion) takeover approach from Carlsberg <CARLb.CO> and Heineken <HEIN.AS>, had received approaches from private equity firms Blackstone <BX.N> and Texas Pacific Group.
Russia-based BBH, a 50/50 brewing venture between Carlsberg and S&N, is key to the takeover fight for Britain's biggest brewer because of a so-called "shotgun" clause attached to BBH.
The clause allows either party to offer to buy the other's BBH stake at any time. The second party must then either match the price and take control itself or accept the offer.
!ADVERTISEMENT!According to sources close to the situation, S&N chief executive John Dunsmore is pondering whether to offer Carlsberg 4.6 billion pounds for its BBH stake in an attempt to fend off the bid from Carlsberg and Heineken or extract a higher offer.
Dunsmore knows the Danish brewer can match S&N's price for BBH. But if Carlsberg wins BBH it gets what it really wants, while S&N will receive a pile of cash and possibly its independence as there will be little incentive for the Copenhagen-based brewer to continue with the bid for S&N.
If Edinburgh-based S&N wins BBH, the 4.6-billion-pound valuation makes S&N itself potentially worth 817 pence per share, well above Carlsberg and Heineken's latest offer of 780 pence, analysts have noted.
S&N, which has always maintained that a bid for the whole of BBH would involve financial backers taking a 25-percent stake, would not comment on the names in The Sunday Times report.
A spokesman did say: "We are extremely confident that we can get high-quality partners for this exceptional asset."
Neither Blackstone nor TPG would comment.
However, one source familiar with the matter confirmed TPG had been in talks with S&N and said an investment of over 4 billion pounds in Russia would be unprecedented and would need to be a club deal, involving several investors.
Another source familiar with the situation said Blackstone had held talks with S&N last summer.
Britain's Takeover Panel has given Carlsberg and Heineken a January 21 deadline to make a formal offer or walk away for a minimum of six months.
"S&N shareholders can get a definite value today or they can get a long period of uncertainty," Carlsberg spokesman Jens Peter Skaarup told Reuters.
Launching a bid for Carlsberg's half of BBH could trigger the shotgun clause attached to BBH, he said, and would create further insecurity for S&N's shareholders.
"Our bid of 780 pence is a cash bid for the entire business. It includes an implied 4.2 billion for BBH ... which is full and fair. The board's unwillingness to engage now puts billions of shareholder value at risk, Carlsberg said in a statement.
($1=0.5110 British pound)
(Reporting by Dan Lalor; additional reporting by Eleanor Wason and Mette Fraende; editing by Rory Channing, Gary Crosse)
