Among autocrats, bureaucrats and diggers - international brewers are staking their claims in the former Soviet East.

Seen any denim-clad gents with checked shirts and a broad Texan drawl at Istanbul airport lately? Must have been oil exploration geologists or engineers waiting for their connecting flight to the Middle East - without question. These days, though, this simple conclusion would be somewhat outdated. Oil also talks with a distinct Scottish accent, Norwegian, Russian, is nattily dressed and most likely on its way from Istanbul to Baku, the Azerbaijan boom town on the Caspian coast. Or off to Astana, the new capital metropolis on the steppes of Kazakhstan, rivalling the glitzy skyline of Dallas. Only if.....

Foster’s did not have to go hunting for an outsider to replace its outgoing CEO Ted
Kunkel - it had already groomed one from its internal talent pool. Only three weeks after Kunkel announced his resignation, Trevor O’Hoy, 48, took his seat. O’Hoy, who joined Foster’s Australian arm, Carlton & United Breweries (CUB) 28 years ago as a cadet before taking on a range of positions, including Managing Director of CUB and Chief Financial Offic-er, faces the challenge of restoring investor confidence in the group.
Foster’s share price has been under serious pressure since the erstwhile Australian brewer bought the Californian wine group Beringer in 2000 for AUD2.9 billion and transformed itself into a branded beer-wine-spirits company.....

... of the 10th Annual Australian Liquor Industry Awards 2003 "Tabelle" The awards system requires on-line voting by liquor retailers who determine the finalists - usually three to five brands per category with a panel of industry experts, such as representatives of industry associations and journalists, selecting the winners.

Heineken N.V. has acquired a 21 percent stake in Guangdong Brewery Holdings Ltd (Guangdong Brewery) through its associated company Heineken Asia Pacific China Pte Ltd (Heineken APB). 72 percent of the shares are owned by GDH Ltd, which is the investment vehicle of the Guangdong Provincial Government. The total acquisition is valued at EUR57 million of which Heineken’s share is EUR28.5 million. The transaction will be funded from existing cash resources. The deal is subject to approval by the independent shareholders of Guangdong Brewery.
In order to streamline its structures in Asia, Heineken APB is to become the vehicle for the production and marketing of beer and other strategic activities such as investments, mergers and acquisitions in China. Operations are to begin in 2005..

Where Europe ends and Asia begins still remains a matter of conjecture. While this vexing question of cultural and political delineation occupies many minds in east and west, the Turkish brewer and soft-drink bottler Efes is set on expanding its market that has the unification of both hemispheres as its goal.
Don’t phone us. We’ll call you." Who hasn’t heard that expression? After having tried their best, the job applicant is ushered out with these words. Sometimes he or she will get a call, sometimes all that can be expected is silence or a "thank you but no thanks"-letter in the mail. It is somewhat ironic that this is the last thing the Canadian CEO of McDonald’s heard from his Russian business partners during a business trip to Moscow - and then nothing more. The deal’s off.

Having completed one AUD 688-million-share buyback, Foster’s immediately announced the resumption of another. In March this year the Foster’s Group will seek shareholder approval to take its buying spree in its own stock to 10 percent. The total buyback has so far reached 8.9 percent of issued stock. The continued capital management is a strong signal that Foster’s is not planning a big acquisition with the AUD1.35 billion raised from floating its pubs and gaming unit Australian Leisure & Hospitality in November 2003.

A commercial television network in the Outback has lifted a 17-year ban on alcohol advertising, writes John Harvey from Adelaide, which was imposed to help fight drink abuse in Aboriginal communities. Imparia TV said that it would donate 30 percent of profits from alcohol advertising to substance abuse education programmes in remote communities. This decision has caused much angst among the anti-alcohol lobbyists. They are currently agitating for the federal government to exercise its influence on the commercial TV network to re-impose the ban.

In February Foster’s announced that President and CEO, Ted Kunkel, will step down before the end of the calendar year 2004. With no more spectacular take-overs in the offing, Ted Kunkel probably thought that now was the best time to retire. According to a corporate announcement, Foster’s is already looking at both internal and external candidates to succeed Mr Kunkel. Kunkel has been at Foster’s helm for the past 12 years, steering the company through many troubled waters. When he joined the brewer in March 1992 the group was facing considerable upheaval and had a seriously impaired balance sheet with high debt and gearing. Today Foster’s has a market capitalisation in excess of AUD 9 billion, a BBB+ credit rating, low gearing and is established as a premium branded beverage company..

As their domestic market has become saturated, Japanese brewers are looking more and more at overseas markets as a new revenue source. Suntory, which built its first brewery in Shanghai in 1996, currently operates three breweries in the coastal area of China, but hopes to acquire more breweries further inland in an effort to boost its beer sales in the country to 5 million hl by 2006, up 70 percent from last year.

It was drinks all round at Peter Lehmann Wines after British drinks concern Allied Domecq dropped its take-over bid for the Barossa Valley wine company. This cleared the path for the preferred contender, the Swiss family-owned Hess Holding AG to close on its AUD149 million offer (EUR90 m). Hess, with its interest in wineries and mineral water brands, is considered a more friendly raider than Allied Domecq because the Swiss are believed to keep the company as it is: a 600,000-case-a-year winery.