Phew - that’s done

The Foster’s Group announced that it has raised its stake in takeover target Southcorp to 91 percent on 26 May, allowing it to compulsorily acquire any outstanding stock in the company under Australian corporate law. The announcement means that Foster’s AUD 3.2 billion (EUR1.9 billion) or AUD 4.26 a share bid for Australia’s largest wine company Southcorp is now a formality. The takeover will create what Foster’s describes as the largest premium winemaker in the world, posting annual turnover of about AUD 14 billion (EUR8.6 billion). Southcorp owns brands such as Penfolds, Rosemount Estate, Wynns and Lindemans, while Foster’s labels include Beringer and Wolf Blass. ..

Next round

Foster’s has extended its offer for Southcorp until 14 April this year, thus gearing up for the next round of this protracted and hostile USD 2.5 billion takeover battle for Australia’s major wine company. In a letter to Southcorp’s shareholders Foster’s has repeated its initial offer of AUD 4.14 per share - a price which Southcorp’s board deems too low. However, Southcorp’s dithering is only part of the game to extract a better price from Foster’s, which may prove a tad bit difficult to achieve as in Southcorp’s case there is no rival bidder and Foster’s already has its foot on 18 percent of the company.
That’s why the two parties have to reach an agreement eventually, or there will be some very disgruntled Southcorp shareholders. Southcorp is a once-in-a-career opportunity.

In January 2005, Heineken and Tempo announced the establishment of a new company in Israel, which will handle all of Tempo’s beverages activities and brew Heineken in Israel. Heineken, which has owned 17.8 percent of Tempo until now, will own 40 percent of the new company and invest USD14.5 million in set-up costs. Tempo will own 60 percent of the new company, which it valued at USD69.5 million.
Heineken and Tempo said that Tempo would transfer the production of soft drinks, beer, fruit juices and mineral water to the new company. In addition, Heineken would grant Tempo a license to brew and market Heineken in Israel. According to the local media, Tempo is controlled by the Podhorzer, Bar and Bornstein families. The company is believed to control half of Israel’s beer market..

In January this year, Foster’s bought a large stake in the Australian wine company Southcorp, giving rise to rumours of a possible takeover. Foster’s acquired 18.8 percent of Southcorp, which owns the Penfolds, Lindemans and Rosemount brands, from the Oatley family for AUD4.17 per share. The Oatleys founded the Rosemount Estate brand and sold it to Southcorp in 2001 for USD762 million or 13.9 times EBIT.
Following the share deal with Foster’s, Robert Oatley and his son Sandy Oatley have both resigned from Southcorp’s board.
Southcorp employs 2,700 people and is the largest single investor in rural Australia according to its website. Its fortunes have been chequered in recent years due to the global glut in wine and the relatively high Australian dollar.1 billion (USD2.4 billion).

Hurry up

CUB, Foster’s Australian division, has just released a new low-carbohydrate beer, Pure Blonde. Rolled out nationally, it is aimed at the niche market of consumers aged 24 - 40 who won’t compromise on taste but are health and image conscious. It retails for about the same price as Carlton Draught and was developed through CUB’s innovation process in just 90 days.

The wrong side of the carpet Beer, booze and popsicles: the Iranian beverage market

A quarter of a century after the Islamic revolution Iran is to increase its output of alcohol-free beer. Are the Ayatollahs finally caving in to popular demand? Or are they just following the time-honoured principle of rule by distraction? Call them pragmatists or cynics or both - in Iran everything has two sides.

It’s an eerie place, the late Shah’s White Palace in northern Tehran. Built by his father Reza Shah in 1936 the two-storey building with its 54 rooms must be one of the icons of 20th century power architecture. Think Albert Speer’s Berlin, Mussolini’s Rome, Ceausescu’s Palace of the People or Thatcher’s London Docklands and you’ll get the picture. In Tehran that happened 25 years ago..

What could they have in mind?

Per capita consumption of beer may be low at 12 litres and the fates of international brewers rather chequered. However, according to local media Anheuser-Busch’s executives had visited the country to discuss sharing their experience in management, marketing, technology transfer and other disciplines with the two leading Vietnamese state-owned breweries, the Hanoi Brewery Corp (HABECO) and the Saigon Brewery Corp (SABECO).
Could this be the same company which in 1996 announced that it would be building a USD250 million brewery in Vietnam? Clearly, Anheuser-Busch was hoping to position its Budweiser brand in this market. In order to clear the way for the brewery and the launching of their Budweiser, Anheuser-Busch applied to register the name of Budweiser as a trademark.

IPO postponed

Coca-Cola Icecek, the Turkish unit of the soft drinks giant, in which Anadolu Efes has a 40 percent stake, has again postponed its IPO plans in November. The company which planned to float about a third of its stock announced that demand was not sufficient to guarantee share price stability following the sale of the shares. This is the second time this year that the bottler has postponed its IPO. The first IPO in June was cancelled due to "weak market conditions". Turkey is the 6th largest market in Europe in terms of total consumption of Coca-Cola products.

Gone shopping

With Japan’s beer production going south, Japanese brewers have begun to look east with greater interest. In November, Kirin Brewery Co, Japan’s major beverage company by sales, announced that it would spend JPY3.9 billion, or USD37.6 million, for a 25 percent stake in Dalian Daxue Brewery, located in northeast China. Kirin will acquire all of the shares to be floated by Dalian Daxue and as a result will own 25 percent of all outstanding shares.
Kirin said it planned to double the Dalian-based brewer’s yearly production capacity to 4.0 million hl by December 2008. It will add to the Zhuhai Kirin President Brewery Co., in Guangdong Province, which Kirin already runs. China, which became the world’s biggest beer producer in 2002, brewed 254 million hl last year, according to Kirin..

Solid results

In November, Lion Nathan reported that Net Profit after Tax (NPAT), before significant items, grew 12.5 percent to AUD202.7 million during the fiscal year 2004. Operating cash flow was up 2.5 percent on the same period to AUD274 million. During the year Lion Nathan took a number of significant strategic initiatives and reviewed the carrying value of its assets which had a one-off impact on the reported result for the 2004 fiscal year. The major items were the sale of its Chinese beer business (realising a profit of AUD104.1 million) in September to SABMiller, the sale of its Victorian hotel portfolio, HMC (a loss of AUD34.2 million) and an AUD71.5 million write-down in the carrying value of its Australian wine business.6 million, reducing reported NPAT to AUD160.1 million.9 million..