Foster’s Group to sell its overseas breweries?

Guess who let it be known that the Foster’s Group was going to sell its overseas breweries for up to AUD 200 million? Seek no further. Just follow the money. Because who would profit from such a sale? The buyer obviously. And who could possibly want to buy Foster’s breweries in India, Vietnam, China, Fiji and Samoa? Well, SABMiller, for one.

At the races

Rumour has it that San Miguel only bought Tasmania’s brewer J Boag & Sons in 2000 because its executives wanted to attend the Melbourne horse races. That’s a good story even though there is more to it than meets the eye. San Miguel Corp., which also happens to be the largest Philippine food and drinks manufacturer, has in the past few years tidied up its house and embarked on a shopping spree in the Asia-Pacific region including Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Australia and China in an effort to broaden the company’s business reach and to decrease dependency on the domestic market, where it has a virtual monopoly in several categories. Still, that has left many wonder about its long-term intentions.3 percent in 2005..

In December 2005, Coopers’ shareholders voted overwhelmingly to remove Lion Nathan’s pre-emptive right to buy shares in the company, thus effectively barring Lion Nathan from its door. Nevertheless, Lion Nathan has announced since that it would extend its AUD 420 million (USD 317 million) hostile takeover offer for Coopers Brewery until 20 March 2006.

Against the odds

Although a special consumption tax was introduced during the first quarter of 2005, whose impact was fully reflected in the beer sales price, Efes managed to increase its domestic sales volume by 4 percent to 6.6 million hl in 2005 according to a company statement released at the end of January 2006. Including export volume, beer production in Turkey was up 5 percent over 2004 to reach 7.1 million hl.

InBev buys Fujian Sedrin brewery

In January 2006 InBev announced that it has reached agreement with various parties to acquire, in a series of transactions, 100 percent of the equity interests in Fujian Sedrin Brewery Co. Ltd. (“Fujian Sedrin”), the largest brewer in Fujian province, for a total cash consideration of EUR 614 million. In a statement InBev says that “Fujian Sedrin is one of the most profitable Chinese brewers and in recent years has achieved an EBITDA margin in excess of 30 percent. The Sedrin® brand will be one of InBev’s top five selling brands globally by volume with significant potential for growth and expansion.”

It’s over – for the time being

In December 2005, Coopers’ shareholders voted overwhelmingly to remove Lion Nathan’s pre-emptive right to buy shares in the company, thus effectively barring Lion Nathan from its door. Nevertheless, Lion Nathan has announced since that it would extend its AUD 420 million (USD 317 million) hostile takeover offer for Coopers Brewery until 20 March 2006.

Tidying up

SABMiller has bought some USD 468.6 million worth of shares it did not own already, in Peru’s biggest beverage maker, Backus y Johnston. SABMiller already owns a 79.7 percent stake in Backus as a result of its purchase of South America’s second-biggest brewer, Bavaria SA, earlier this year.

Change the tax!

Kirin Brewery, Japan’s number two brewer, reported a 3.4 percent rise in third quarter group operating profit on strong sales of beer-like drinks, and kept its 0.6 percent growth forecast for the year. Apparently Kirin benefited from the introduction of a so-called “third-type” beer, Nodogoshi Nama, into the growing lower-priced segment, of which it now controls about 35 percent, say media reports. The product, along with the company’s popular low-malt “happoshu” brews, boosted Kirin’s sales in the July-September summer quarter by 5 percent, while Japan’s overall beer market dwindled by about 1.5 percent, Kirin said.

There will be tears

One of the first expressions a foreigner will learn in China is “chi ku”, or “eat bitterness” because the Chinese take great pride in their ability to endure hardship. Perhaps some foreign brewers will be forced to eat bitterness too given the recent scramble over the Fudjian Sedrin Brewery which might end in tears for some. Last year, SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch slugged it out over Harbin Brewery and in the end SABMiller was crying all the way to the bank just having sold its shares in Harbin to Anheuser-Busch at a premium. Whether Anheuser-Busch ate bitterness over the deal – who knows? ...

Lipservice

Whether they really mean it or whether they are just staking their claims – in any case, Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH) has announced that they are going to make a major push into the highly challenging market of Belarus, one of Europe’s fringe states, which has fallen foul with the European Union and the United Nations for being one of the “last dictatorships in Europe” according to U.S. President George W Bush. Recently, tensions have begun to mount between Belarus and its neighbour Poland over the treatment of Belarus’ sizeable Polish minority. Around 400,000 ethnic Poles out of a population of 10.2 million live in Belarus, in areas that formed part of Poland until World War II.