Copehagen, Dec 14 - Analysts believe Carlsberg and Heineken will again raise their bid for Scottish & Newcastle (S&N), to 775 pence a share, to woo the unwilling British brewer, a Reuters poll showed Friday.
The Danish and Dutch brewers first approached their peer with a cash bid proposal of 720p a share in October, then raised the price to 750p last month.
Both approaches were promptly rejected by S&N, and the brewer of Foster's, Kronenbourg and Newcastle Brown Ale has refused so far to negotiate with the bidding consortium.
Nine out of the 12 brewing analysts polled thought that Carlsberg and Heineken would again raise their proposed bid.
On average, the nine analysts saw 775p as the new bid price, valuing S&N at about 7.6 billion pounds ($15.4 billion) against 7.3 billion pounds for the 750p bid.
The highest estimate in the poll was 800p and the lowest 765p.
Two other analysts thought there could be a new bid, but only if S&N agreed to start negotiating with its suitors, while one analyst said there would be no further bid from Carlsberg and Heineken.
"I do not expect the bid of 750 pence per share to be increased within the nearest future," said Jyske Bank analyst Jens Thomsen. "On the other hand, if negotiations are initiated, I can imagine that the bid will go up," he said.
Under the bid plan, Carlsberg would acquire S&N's 50 percent stake in Russia-based Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) -- a venture jointly owned with Carlsberg -- as well as businesses in France, Greece and China.
Heineken would take control of S&N's business in Britain and other European markets, as well as its United States and Indian businesses.
Since Oct 18, the day after the initial bid was announced, the FTSE100 has fallen about 5 percent while S&N shares are about 4 percent lower.
Thomsen said falling global equity prices over the last months had made the cash offer relatively sweeter to S&N shareholders.
"This makes the current bid more appealing, however, some people might not want to take further risk and bet on a possible increase of the bid, which could lead to a sell-off," he said.
S&N has asked an arbitration court in Sweden to judge whether the approach breaches an agreement with Carlsberg over their BBH Eastern European brewing venture.
BBH is key to the bid battle as it controls Baltika the biggest brewer in the world's third-largest beer market, Russia.
The poll was conducted for Reuters by Inquiry Financial Intelligence.