P. M. BRIEFING : Takeover to Cost Guinness More
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LONDON — British brewing group Guinness PLC was ordered today to pay about $140 million to some former shareholders of Distillers, the Scotch whisky company it acquired in a bitter takeover battle three years ago.
Britain’s stock market watchdog, the Takeover Panel, said the payment was to “remedy certain breaches of the Takeover Code by Guinness.”
The unsuccessful rival bidder for Distillers, the Safeway supermarkets group Argyll, and its advisers will receive a large part of the money.
The panel said former Distillers shareholders would receive the difference between Guinness’s cash-and-shares offer for the company and the higher cash price paid for some shares during the course of the bid.
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