Interbrew cries foul on takeover leak

INTERBREW has branded documents leaked to the Press about its possible bid for South African Breweries as fakes, leading to further speculation that a mischief-maker was trying to derail a takeover approach.

The Belgian owner of Stella Artois said that while parts of the documents appeared to be authentic representations of a preliminary working document being prepared by its bankers, large chunks had been falsified.

Interbrew is co-operating with investigations by the London and Brussels stock exchanges into the leak, which has sent shares in South African Breweries rocketing. The Belgian brewer, which launched an internal investigation after obtaining a copy of the leaked document on Thursday, cited an extract saying a bid would be launched on Monday 3 December following a meeting of the company's board on Sunday.

However, the document was in such a preliminary stage that it had not even been put before the executive committee or the board of directors of Interbrew. Such a timetable would therefore be impossible, a spokesman said.

The document also contained false details of a £4.6bn price tag for the London-listed target, whereas Interbrew is thought to have been considering a nil-premium merger. 'The falsified document is full of rubbish like this,' said the spokesman.

Rumours are rife that the leaker was trying to throw any takeover off course by putting false information into the market.