S&N's famous brands include Newcastle Brown Ale

The Edinburgh-based brewer reiterated its opposition to 750p-per-share bid approach from Carlsberg and Heineken.

S&N also said it was confident about prospects and announced plans to cut costs by �20m a year.

The company also said it had agreed to sell a large proportion of its French trade distribution business for �85m.

"Nothing is sacred. I passionately believe that Scottish & Newcastle will deliver value to its shareholders that vindicates our response to the consortium proposal," S&N's new chief executive, John Dunsmore, said in a statement.

S&N - whose brands include Newcastle Brown Ale, Foster's and Kronenbourg 1664 - repeated that it thought the offer from Carlsberg and Heineken was "wholly inadequate" as it "substantially undervalues" the company.

Fighting talk

A war of words broke out between the two sides on Thursday last week, after the consortium raised its proposed bid to 750p a share from the original offer of 720p.

See S&N's share price

S&N rejected the move, and accused the two firms of trying to buy it "on the cheap".

However, on Friday, Carlsberg and Heineken attacked S&N's rejection of the improved offer as "ill-informed".

S&N shares closed at 738.5p on Monday.

Unveiling its latest trading update, S&N said that its cost-cutting plans included the closure of the bottling plant at its Reading brewery.

The firm also said that it had agreed a production and packaging agreement with Coors UK.

Regarding trading, S&N said that it had continued to make "good progress" in most of its core beer markets, although its Western European markets had been hit by the wet summer weather.

Key asset

S&N reiterated that the Russia-based brewer Baltic Beverages Holdings (BBH), which is jointly owned by itself and Carlsberg, had enjoyed "outstanding results" for the first nine months of the year with operating profits up 33% to 526m euros.

BBH has become a key factor in the battle for S&N. It is seen as one of S&N's key assets, as it controls more than 85% of Baltika, Russia's biggest brewer.

Under the bid proposal put forward by Carlsberg and Heineken, S&N's assets would be split up between the two, with Carlsberg gaining full control of BBH.

Last month, S&N said that Carlsberg had breached the terms of the agreement for BBH by making the bid approach and that it was now considering whether to take full control of the business. Carlsberg responded by saying the claim had "no merit".

In its trading update, S&N said that it believed it had a "robust case" in the arbitration proceedings over BBH and was confident it would be in a position to take control of the business.