How much did SABMiller pay for Meantime?

When brewer SABMiller acquired London’s craft brewer Meantime in May 2015, they refrained from saying how much they paid. This has not stopped observers from speculating, of course.

The figure could have been high, analysts say. Because recent valuations for the Scottish brewer BrewDog put its implied worth at GBP 305 million (EUR 415 million) or 10 times BrewDog’s 2014 revenues of GBP 29.6 million (USD 45 million). Not bad for a brewer whose output was 90,000 hl beer in 2014.

Another upstart brewer from London, Camden Town, which was set up in 2010 and sold over 40,000 hl beer in 2014, was valued GBP 70 million. All these estimates are derived from the two brewers’ recent crowdfunding-initiatives.

Meantime had 2014 revenues of GBP 17 million and beer volumes of 64,000 hl. If we apply BrewDog’s metrics (10 times revenues), Meantime could have fetched GBP 175 million (EUR 240 million / USD 267 million).

That’s what some would call a very lucrative exit.