Brewdog defends 'punk' ethos after £213m private equity deal

Self-styled "punk" craft brewer Brewdog has accepted an investment of £213m from US private equity group TSG Consumer Partners.

The deal values the formerly crowdfunded company at £1bn and sees £100m paid out to founders James Watt and Martin Dickie, who started Brewdog with a £20,000 bank loan. Watt's shareholding will be reduced from 35 to 25 per cent, but he will remain the largest shareholder.

Close to £13m will be available for Brewdog's 55,000 smaller investors, referred to by the company as "equity punks", who will also be able to redeem 15 per cent of their shareholding.

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Watt told the BBC: "Everyone who has invested in earlier rounds, at a much lower equity, will see massive returns. They will do better than any FTSE tracker fund."

He told the Daily Telegraph that the investment was part of a plan to list the company in "four to five years" and that Brewdog had rejected deals worth more in order to benefit from TSG's "history of taking some brands public".

Watt also defended his company against accusations it had abandoned its underdog ethos, saying: "Our appeal to drinkers isn't about scale; it's about passion and values. It's about living or dying by what goes into every glass or bottle."

Brewdog was criticised last month for threatening to take court action against an independent pub in Birmingham over the use of the name Lone Wolf, which the company has used for its new vodka.