BREWER Scottish & Newcastle has received a fresh takeover proposal after bidders Carlsberg and Heineken topped up their offer to more than £7 billion.

The group, which has a brewery in Imperial Way, South Reading, has previously described the heavyweights’ break-up proposals as “unsolicited and unwelcome”.

The new approach on Thursday was worth 750p a share, an increase of 30p a share on a previous offer and valued the business at £7.3 billion.

Danish firm Carlsberg and Dutch brewer Heineken plan to carve up S&N if they succeed in their overtures for the drinks giant.

Heineken is looking to gain S&N’s UK business and operations elsewhere in Europe, while Carlsberg wants to take S&N’s stake in their 50/50 Russian joint venture BBH, as well as the firm’s operations in France and Greece.

The duo’s first takeover proposal led S&N chairman Sir Brian Stewart to accuse the firms of attempting to buy the business “on the cheap”, with the 720p a share approach lower at the time than the brewer’s share price.

The brewers said their new offer price represented a premium of 41 per cent to the S&N share price prior to the first bid speculation surrounding S&N in March. S&N, which makes Foster’s, Kronenbourg 1664 and John Smith’s, has around 3,300 staff working at its breweries in Reading, Manchester, Dunston near Newcastle and Tadcaster in North Yorkshire.

The company also owns the Bulmers cider mill in Hereford and has administrative staff in Edinburgh and Staines, Middlesex.

Heineken chief executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer, said: “The proposal represents a very attractive opportunity for S&N shareholders to obtain a price higher than the standalone value of the group."