AB-InBev sells two more breweries
AB-InBev has sold its breweries Hasseröder and Diebels to the German financial investor CKCF for an estimated EUR 200 million (USD 245 million). The deal is to be completed during the first half of 2018. AB-InBev started sales proceedings in mid-2017.
It was Belgium’s Interbrew which bought the Alt beer producer Diebels in 2001 and the eastern German brewery Hasseröder in 2002 as part of the Gilde group of breweries.
Interbrew paid approximately EUR 100 million (then USD 95 million) for Diebels and EUR 575 million (USD 513 million) for both Gilde and Hasseröder. In those days Diebels produced about 1.6 million hl beer. Today only about 300,000 hl.
When sold, the Gilde group produced an estimated three million hl beer. When AB-InBev disposed of Hannover’s Gilde brewery in 2015 for EUR 15 million (USD 16 million), its volumes had dropped to 150,000 hl from formerly 600,000 hl.
Hasseröder’s sales continued to climb to reach 2.7 million hl beer in 2012. But despite steep discounts in the off-premise, sales have since declined to 1.9 million hl in 2017.
Diebels and Hasseröder employ over 500 people combined.
Insiders believe Hasseröder and Diebels should have attracted a valuation of EUR 200 million at the most because Diebels used to carry huge pension obligations to the order of EUR 50 million. Whether these were part of the deal – and would need to be deducted from the valuation – or were transferred to an insurer in a separate transaction, they cannot say.
CKCF has already announced that it will invest in the breweries and their brands, which AB-InBev will have “stripped to the bone” according to the German trade publication INSIDE. It seeks to employ an extra 50 to 70 people at Diebels. It may prove a boon that the original AB-InBev team heading the two units will be taken on by CKCF.
Who is CKCF? That’s the big question. Its business address is a private home in Kronberg, a town near Frankfurt. Various company names have been stuck on its letter box, media report. There are no employees. For years the privately-owned CKCF has only used freelancers. According to its website CKCF specialises in consulting work. It has never acted as an investor in public. When journalists looked at its latest published financial statement (2015), they discovered that CKCF’s equity was zero whereas its liabilities were EUR 560,000 (USD 660,000).
Many wonder why AB-InBev chose to sell the two breweries to CKCF which certainly has no background in beer, let alone in Germany’s cut-throat brewing industry. There is rumour that CKCF is only a front for a buyer who prefers to stay in the shadow. But AB-InBev was quick to point out that CKCF had been vetted by Deutsche Bank, which had handled the sale, and deemed above board.
It would not be out of the ordinary if CKCF, for example, fully financed the deal by debt. Still, it might be hard pressed to make a profit. Local media estimate that Diebels had a turnover of around EUR 40 million (USD 44 million) but its margin was only two percent. That will not be enough to cover interest payments on the debt, insiders say.
In any case, CKCF has promised that it will have the money available when it completes the transaction.
With Hasseröder and Diebels gone, AB-InBev has said that it will now focus on its two remaining breweries in Bremen and in Munich, including their brands Beck’s and Franziskaner, a wheat beer, plus the Corona Extra import business.
