Thai firm joins the Tiger beer hunt

The battle for Tiger beer stepped up a gear yesterday as Thai Beverage made a $7.2bn (£4.5bn) offer for the drinks conglomerate Fraser & Neave, part-owner of Asia Pacific Breweries (APB).

This countered an earlier offer from Heineken, which, through its 80-year relationship with Fraser & Neave, has direct and indirect stakes in APB totalling 41.9 per cent.

The European brewer had offered $4.5bn to buy out the rest.