Heineken To Takeover, Delist Desnoes & Geddes Ltd. Bye Bye Red Stripe.

Desnoes & Geddes Limited, makers of Jamaica’s famous Red Stripe Beer is being taken over by Heineken International as they now have a controlling stake in the company.

Red Stripe Beer

Diageo (headquartered in London) which had a controlling stake in the company (57.87%), sold their shares to Heineken, who also owned (15.45%) of the company separately. As a result, the total shareholdings of Heineken are now over 73% and the company can make an offer for the remaining shares in the company that it does not own.

Heineken will be making an offer to the remaining shareholders at  US$0.259 per share which works out to be a little over J$30 per share, a little over 4 times the J$7 price at which it closed yesterday.

Board Changes

The companies have advised that some of the current board members will resign and new board members appointed by Heineken.

HEINEKEN and Diageo have agreed that certain directors of D&G nominated by Diageo will resign from, and certain people nominated by HEINEKEN will be appointed to, the D&G board in the coming days.

Red Stripe unveils something new!

Desnoes & Geddes Limited is the manufacturer of Jamaica’s popular Red Stripe Beer.

Press Release

See highlights of Desnoes & Geddes Limited press release posted to the stock exchange below.

HEINEKEN acquires a controlling stake in Desnoes & Geddes Limited (“D&G”) and intends to make an offer to purchase all outstanding shares of D&G pursuant to the Jamaican Takeover Code.

Heineken N.V. (“HEINEKEN”) today has announced that Heineken International B.V. (“Heineken International”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of HEINEKEN, has acquired the entire issued share capital of Udiam Holdings AB (“Udiam”) from a subsidiary of Diageo plc (Diageo plc and its subsidiaries being “Diageo”) for the sum of US$ 420,992,826 (the “Acquisition”). Udiam owns 1,625,549,827 shares in D&G, which constitutes approximately 57.87% of the share capital of D&G. Heineken International has also acquired a small shareholding which Diageo held directly in D&G. The price paid by Heineken International to Diageo for Udiam, and the direct shareholding, equates to US$ 0.259 per D&G share. Prior to the Acquisition, another subsidiary of HEINEKEN already owned 434,033,141 D&G shares, which constitutes approximately 15.45% of the share capital of D&G. Following the Acquisition, HEINEKEN indirectly owns 2,059,610,670 shares, which constitutes approximately 73.32% of the share capital of D&G.