The payment to remaining shareholders is estimated at US$194 million (around $23.47 billion).

The settlement follows the transaction with Udiam Holdings AB, a company incorporated in Sweden and ultimate parent company of Diageo PLC, incorporated in the United Kingdom, which bought the 57.9 per cent of shares bought by Heineken in October 2015.

Heineken, a Swedish subsidiary owned by Heineken NV in the Netherlands, is the world’s leading marketer of ciders and beers. Desnoes and Geddes, a Jamaican company, produces Red Stripe, Malta and Dragon.

The deal to acquire Red Stripe, announced on October 6, 2015, resulted in Diageo offloading its brewing interests in Jamaica, Malaysia and Singapore to Heineken, while Heineken acquired Diageo’s 57.9 per cent stake in Desnoes & Geddes.

The price paid to Diageo for its shareholding was US$421 million. Heineken already owned 15.5 per cent of the company, taking its stake in the company to 73.3 per cent.

Heineken, in seeking all shares outstanding, targeted the remaining 749,559, 524 units at US$0.254 per stock unit.

Shareholders were given a deadline of January 1, 2016 to accept, which was later extended to Thursday January 21.

In an announcement dated December 4, Heineken said it had acquired 86.1 per cent of total shareholding. The stake is enough to commence delisting from the Jamaica Stock Exchange on which D&G currently trades. The final holdings by Heineken are yet to be disclosed.

The offer by Heineken was 341 per cent over the closing price of $7.00 on October 6, the last trading day before the announcement.

NCB Capital Markets Limited, by way of notice on the Jamaica Stock Exchange, said that it would wrap up payments by close of business on Friday, February 5, a date which preceded the disclosure.

— BY AVIA COLLINDER