Thailand | Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) has revived plans to seek a stock market listing in Singapore in the first half of 2021 for its regional beer assets, including the brewer of Chang beer, in Thailand, and Sabeco, in Vietnam. The initial public offering (IPO) could raise about USD 2 billion, Reuters reports.

Vietnam | After decades of beer consumption only going up, it suddenly came to a screeching halt in 2020, after the Vietnamese government introduced Decree 100, its drastic anti-drunk driving laws in January. And then came covid-19.

Korea | Before covid-19, South Korea was one of the leading markets for booze. Beer and soju were consumed the most. What is more, one in two beers was sold in bars and restaurants. As the pandemic has prevented people from enjoying get-togethers and socialising, the beer market is undergoing a dramatic change.

India | The Japanese brewer plans to acquire a stake of slightly under 10 percent in the local craft brewer Bira for about USD 30 million, The Financial Times (FT) reported on 4 January 2021. The deal will be Kirin’s first bet on premium beer in India.

India | Top executives of Carlsberg, SABMiller and India’s United Breweries (UB) exchanged commercially sensitive information and colluded to fix beer prices in India over eleven years, according to a government antitrust investigation released in December 2020.

Australia | Japan’s Asahi, which bought the country’s leading brewer Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) from AB-InBev in 2020, has sold its leading online alcohol retailer BoozeBud back to the business’ founders.

Australia | For several months now, China has been using punitive tariffs in retaliation for criticism from Australia. Now Beijing has targeted Australian wine. Since the end of November, Chinese importers have to pay surcharges of between 107 percent and 212 percent. China’s demand for Australian wine is expected to almost completely collapse.

Australia | More than 200 parliamentarians from 19 countries are calling on people to drink Australian wine in protest against the brutal tariffs slapped on the country by China. The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) describes itself as a “cross-party group of legislators working towards reform on how democratic countries approach China”.

Australia | As can be expected, the coronavirus crisis will have impacted brewers’ sales adversely, but insiders are hard pressed to come up with an estimate. Most likely, beer sales will be down in the mid-single digits in 2020, but the decline will probably hit the Big Brewers harder than the independents.

Australia | 2020 may turn into craft brewing’s “lost year”, but Australian craft brewers remain upbeat. They think they are in a “largely strong” position, heading into the antipodean summer, while building on the trends that have emerged since the pandemic broke out.