Fullers: You read it here first, or second, or third

Fuller Smith & Turner, the UK brewer and pub group, is selling its entire beer business to Japan’s Asahi in a deal worth £250m, the company announced today. Fuller’s will offload all of its brewing, wholesaling and distribution operations, transforming the London-based brewer, which was founded in 1845, into purely an operator of pubs and hotels. Its shares rose 21 per cent on the announcement. Hundreds of thousands of beer drinkers began a state of mourning.