You have to give it to SABMiller: they have an impeccable sense of timing. A few days before Foster’s was to release its 2011 full year results, SABMiller went hostile on Foster’s by taking its AUD 9.5 billion bid (USD 10 billion) directly to shareholders, thus cutting out Foster’s management. SABMiller needs 90 percent of Foster’s shareholders to agree to ensure success.

Sometimes when hunting it’s better to wait out your prey than to act quickly. Take SABMiller. By doing nothing it is forcing Foster’s to act. Foster’s board is under shareholder pressure to negotiate with its potential acquirer SABMiller, after Foster’s shares fell below the price that SABMiller has offered. In June 2011, SABMiller had offered AUD 4.90 per share, causing Foster’s shares to jump to AUD 5.22 fuelled on expectations that the Australian company could also attract interest from other major beer groups.

Japanese brewers have deep pockets and they are out to shop. Final bids for Independent Liquor were due to close 4 August 2011 and if the rumour mongers are correct, neither of the big Australian retailers – Woolworths and Coles – submitted offers.

That’s pathetic. That’s truly desperate. Do they have nothing better to do? As investors await news about Foster’s full-year profits and a higher bid from SABMiller, Foster’s CEO John Pollaers on 29 July 2012 announced Foster’s had relaunched its iconic beer business and renamed its Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) business as Carlton United Brewers.

In July 2011 Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) and Heineken sold their stakes in Jiangsu Dafuhao Breweries Co and Shanghai Asia Pacific Brewery Company to China Resources Snow Breweries (CR Snow), a joint venture of CR Enterprise and SABMiller.

On June 16, Sidel inaugurated its new Beijing technical training center, a 900 sqm facility located within the Sidel Beijing Plant, equipped with three classrooms with capability to offer theoretical learning, including a virtual reality room that allows trainees to interact with projected models.

What’s going on in Australia? Is the country’s beverage industry running a shop clearance sale? Everything but the girl must go? According to media reports, the Foster’s Group, the listed wine company Treasury Wine Estates and Independent Liquor, a private equity-owned producer of alcopops, have all been tagged for disposal.

The sales of international spirits brands have long been hampered by emerging markets’ tax barriers. Not for much longer, though. In the case of the Philippines, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is expected to rule that the taxes levied on alcoholic drinks from the European Union and United States are illegal under global trade rules.

First the release of dissident artist Ai Weiwei, then the go-ahead for a long-blocked deal. China moves in mysterious ways. Who would have thought that one day Beijing would allow a foreign company to gain control of a Chinese brand? At the end of June 2011, Diageo, the world’s number one drinks company, was given the green light by China’s antitrust body to acquire one of China’s best-known liquor makers in a deal that could pave the way for one of the first foreign acquisitions of a big Chinese listed company.

As soon as SABMiller’s offer was on the table, analysts began to speculate on the future of Grupo Modelo’s fast-growing export sales to Australia. Currently, Foster’s imports and distributes Corona Extra Down Under. Should Foster’s change hands, Modelo may have to look for another distributor, analysts at Credit Suisse reckon.