Russia: UK brewer Scottish & Newcastle announced on March 15 that Russian leading brewery, Baltika, a part of S&N's eastern European joint venture, increased its sales 20 % in the first two months of this year. The strong growth from year-ago levels continued a strong trend for the key Russian market in the second half of last year and gave a boost to S&N's shares, according to Reuters. "We are very pleased with the continued strong performance and momentum of this business," a spokeswoman for S&N said.

Baltika is a subsidiary of BBH, which S&N jointly owns with Denmark's Carlsberg. BBH's beer volumes in the last quarter of 2004 jumped 23 percent, including a 25 percent jump in the key Russian market.

BBH Russia's growth accelerated throughout 2004 on the back of increased investment in advertising, sales force and distribution and an underlying 11 percent growth in the Russian beer market.

By 1147 GMT on March 15 S&N shares were up 1.8 % at 455 pence, one of the top performing UK shares. Carlsberg shares were up 0.4 percent at 289 crowns. Dealers said S&N shares had risen in early trading after analysts at Deutsche Bank had repeated their "buy" stance on the company and highlighted that sales from Russia had started the year better than expected.

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