Whitbread has beaten Bass in the race to see which could sell off its brewing division first. As Bass was announcing bullish mid-term results and declining to reveal any details of its sales discussions on Thursday, it was upstaged by Whitbread which went public on a £400m cash deal to sell its brewing company to Interbrew. Though a deal had been long-awaited this caught much of the City by surprise as the Belgian brewer had been the hot favourite to buy the Bass brewing division. A Whitbread spokesman maintained the timing of the announcement on the day Bass reported its interim results was purely coincidental. The City was not ruling out the possibility that Interbrew could still bid for Bass as well, but if it did it would probably run into problems with the Office of Fair Trading. This is the same problem faced by Carlsberg if it wants to make a play for Bass. It already has a share in the UK in the shape of Carlsberg-Tetley. The others still in the game for Bass are Heineken and South African Breweries. The Dutch brewing giant made it clear earlier this year it will not pay over the odds just to gain a foothold in the UK. SAB was also said to be in negotiations but its interests have centred on eastern Europe and it might not be keen to take on the heavy commitment of the Bass UK operation. The Whitbread/Interbrew deal calls into question the future of Whitbread's contract to make and sell Heineken in the UK. Whitbread's chief executive David Thomas said he had kept faith with Interbrew and Heineken. "All three companies have discussed the sale in advance of today's announcement and will continue to cooperate in the best interests of customers and brands," he said. The company will be known as Interbrew UK. Interbrew's chief executive Hugo Powell said: "Our company is the logical buyer for Whitbread's brewing business. It complements our strategy of being a world brewer with a strong local presence in key markets." {{NEWS }}