After years of troubles Carlsberg sells brewery to CBC

Phew. Carlsberg will probably be glad to turn its back on this venture. After an optimistic start in 2006, when Carlsberg built a 1.0 million hl brewery in the country’s capital Tashkent and subsequently bought out its local partner to fully own the company, things began to turn difficult.

In 2011 Carlsberg was accused of avoiding taxes. After police raids, its Russian CEO decided to leave the country. In its full year 2011 financials, Carlsberg booked impairment losses of DKK 300 million (EUR 40 million) for its Uzbek subsidiary.

Things got a lot worse in 2012 when Carlsberg could not get forex and ran out of raw materials. It was subsequently forced to cease production, sending staff on leave for six months. Already in 2012 Carlsberg was said to be looking for a buyer.

According to Russian media, Carlsberg has invested USD 100 million in Uzbekistan but ended up as the country’s number five brewer by volume (200,000 hl beer) only. Moreover, the beer market has been flat for some time at about 2.9 million hl.

Since Carlsberg disposed of both its businesses in Romania and Uzbekistan to Israel-based Central Bottling Company (CBC), insiders believe that Carlsberg bundled the two to be shot of them. Whether CBC will fare any better in Uzbekistan remains to be seen. After all, Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, ranks Uzbekistan as one of the most corrupt countries in the world.