Carlsberg, the Danish brewer, has launched a 30.5 billion crowns (£3.26 billion) rights issue on the Copenhagen stock market to pay for its share of Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), the UK brewing group it split with Heineken this year.

The proceeds from the rights issues will repay the bridging loan that funded Carlsberg's side of the total £10 billion deal, which gave the company's S&N’s operations in France while Heineken took on the UK business - ending 259 years of independence for the British company.

Under the agreement, Carlsberg funded about 56 per cent of the purchase, with its Dutch partner paying 44 per cent.

Carlsberg's rights issue is on a one-for-one basis at a 40 per cent discount to the market price. "It's a very big issue, doubling their number of shares, so I suppose it had to be a large discount," said one Danish broker.

Jorgen Rasmussen, chief executive at Carlsberg, today insisted that said the rights issue had been well received by existing and new investors, adding: “Everyone believes in our strategy, so we don’t expect any big problems.”

However, Carlsberg shares fell 4.6 per cent to 643 crowns.

Mr Rasmussen said: "If we have options elsewhere to do an acquisition out in Asia or in another place that we think would be right for the business, we want to be in a position to do it and that’s part of the strategy of what we’re doing.”

The issue is fully underwritten by BNP Paribas, Danske Bank, Lehman Brothers and Nordea Bank.

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