The interaction of He with Br-2 in electronically excited B (3)Pi(u) state is investigated using spin-unrestricted single and double coupled-cluster approach with noniterative perturbative treatment of triple excitations. Internal electrons of the Br atom are described by effective core pseudopotentials. The validity of this approach is analyzed by comparing the lowest (2)Sigma(+) and (2)Pi electronic states of the HeBr molecule with those obtained in all electron calculations [J. Chem. Phys. 115, 10438 (2001)]. In this context, we examine the performance of different basis sets and saturation with bond functions. The comparison of theoretical blue-shifts with the experiment provides confidence about the present ab initio calculations. In addition, He-Br results of ab initio calculations at the same level are used to obtain approximate He-Br-2 ((3)Pi(u)) interactions in the framework of the diatomics-in-molecule first order perturbation theory (IDIM-PT1) [J. Chem. Phys. 104, 9913 (1996)]. Overall, the IDIM-PT1 model results show a good agreement with the ab initio ones, being the main difference the sensitivity to the elongation of the Br-Br bond. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.