Guinness Peat Group, the investment company winding up its portfolio, won't make any further appeal over a European General Court decision that imposed a 110 million euro ($169m) fine, and separately sold out of its third British brewer this year.
The investment company's Coats unit is "extremely disappointed" with the decision to reject its appeal against the fine and "maintains that the European Commission's allegations of a market sharing agreement in the European haberdashery market in the period from 1977 to 1998 are unfounded", it said in a statement.
Coats paid the fine and interest by drawing on existing bank facilities.
In a separate statement, GPG sold its remaining 6 million shares in 200-year-old Blackburn-brewer Daniel Thwaites on an ex-dividend basis. The investment company netted 4.9 million pounds on the sale of its 10 per cent stake and will reap a further 200,000 pounds from a dividend payment, it said.
Including the dividend, that indicates a sale price of 85 pence per share, a 8.6 per cent discount to the stock's 93 pence closing price.
