South Africa | No wonder Heineken and Distell were a bit vague about financials. The three-way transaction between Heineken, Distell and Namibia Breweries (NBL), which will create a total beverage alcohol firm in southern Africa, could take a year to complete.

South Africa | In one fell swoop Heineken has widened and re-organised its interests in southern Africa. On 15 November 2021 it reported that it has agreed to buy drinks firm Distell as part of a plan to create a new Southern African business.

South Africa | No jobs, no electricity and no booze? South Africa is facing a joyless festive season. In late October, the energy supplier Eskom laid out its load shedding forecast for the next 18 months. It expects rolling blackouts to feature heavily in South Africa for the foreseeable future.

South Africa | What are we to make of this? Namibia Breweries Limited (NBL), a listed producer of beer (Windhoek lager), soft drinks and RTDs, received an offer on 1 October 2021, to sell its loss-making 25 percent stake in the Heineken South Africa joint venture to Heineken for an undisclosed amount.

South Africa | Drinks company Distell will conclude talks with Heineken about its takeover offer one way or another by the end of September 2021.

South Africa | Official data, published in August 2021, show that white wine has seen the biggest price increase, rising by an average of 12.8 percent between June 2020 and June 2021. This was followed by whiskey (+8.1 percent), red wine (+6.7 percent) and spirit coolers and ciders (+4.5 percent). The average price of beer has increased by only 3.3 percent over the 12-month period, the statistics body said.

South Africa | Hundreds of liquor stores and several beer warehouses in KwaZulu-Natal (Durban) and Gauteng (Johannesburg) were ransacked by rioters during the recent unrest. By some estimate 800 outlets were vandalised and looted.

Strategic marketing | Messe München South Africa, organisers of IFAT Africa, food & drink technology Africa and analytica Lab Africa, have moved to enhance the value adds and strategic marketing for their exhibitors.

South Africa | So Heineken’s CEO Dolf van den Brink could be clinching his first major deal. There has been speculation about a tie-up between Heineken and Distell for years. Distell is run by former SAB executives, not least CEO Richard Rushton, 54, who was appointed to its board in 2013, following various leadership roles with SABMiller.

Mozambique | An unlucky coincidence: Just as AB-InBev celebrated the opening of a new brewery near Maputo on 1 April 2021, the French energy giant Total, at the end of April, declared force majeure and withdrew from its Mozambique liquid natural gas (LNG) project indefinitely.