Takeover becomes S&N legal chief's swan song

Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) general counsel and company secretary Peter Kennerley ;has ;been made redundant following the successful takeover of the UK brewer by the Carlsberg and Heineken consortium.

The fate of the rest of S&N's legal team is still being decided.

S&N's ;UK ;business and legal function became integrated into Heineken's Western European operations after the takeover completed on 28 April.

Kennerley said: "The scheme has become effective and therefore I've resigned as company secretary and general counsel, but I'll remain as a consultant at S&N for three months.

"I'll be very sorry to leave S&N, but I think that our businesses and our country legal teams have a great future under the new ownership of Heineken and Carlsberg."

The S&N board, Kennerley and his legal team extracted an additional £800m for S&N shareholders from Danish brewer Carlsberg ;and ;Dutch brewer Heineken after a three-month takeover battle led to the consortium's final bid of 800p per share (The Lawyer.com, 28 January).

Kennerley's legal team consists of six UK-based lawyers. UK general counsel Graeme Colquhoun and senior group and international legal adviser Kevin Santry were closely involved in the takeover battle.

Colquhoun will remain as UK head of legal until all integration with the buyers has completed.

S&N employs around 20 ;in-house ;lawyers worldwide, with Heineken absorbing Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Belgium and India. ;Carlsberg ;will take over France, Greece, Russia, China and Vietnam.

Linklaters advised S&N on the takeover, Norton Rose advised Carlsberg and Allen & Overy advised Heineken.