Baltika Breweries, the leader on the Russian beer market, on 19 February reported that its net profit edged up 11 percent to RUB 15.5 billion (USD 425 million) in 2008 year-on-year.

Pernod Ricard said that the average cost of debt should be less than 5 percent for the full year 2008/09 and close to 4 percent for 2009/10, based on current interest rates and current hedging.

Global drinks giant Diageo cut its full-year profit guidance and launched a new cost-cutting plan after both sales and profit growth slowed sharply in its second quarter and it warned of a further slide in consumer confidence.

The notes are expected to be listed on Euronext Amsterdam by NYSE Euronext, the regulated market of Euronext Amsterdam N.V. and on the London Stock Exchange’s Regulated Market.

Interbrew’s top brass must have known that there was a snag to their purchase of Munich’s Spaten brewery or they would have told the press in 2003 that the small print of the sales contract read: “Brewery real estate not included”.

Sometimes small things are an indication of greater things to come. Last year, during hop harvest in the Hallertau, Anheuser-Busch was filming a commercial for its Michelob internet site which featured Dr Willy Buholzer, Anheuser-Busch’s hop expert and buyer.

Will history repeat itself? In 1805, a French woman, widowed at the age of 27, takes over her late husband’s wine business in the wake of the French Revolution. She guides it through the turbulent times of the Napoleonic Wars, pioneers efficiencies in champagne production and becomes filthy rich and famous in the process. Who is she? Step forward, Barbe-Nicole Clicquot Ponsardin, better know as La Veuve Clicquot. The widow Clicquot to this day has a luxury champagne label named after her.

Diageo, the world’s biggest drinks company, will review a EUR 650 million scheme to build a new state-of-the-art Guinness brewery in Ireland because of the economic downturn. Ireland’s GDP is expected to contract by 5 percent and the unemployment rate is to rise to over 9 percent this year.

The story so far. With Prof Back and Prof Geiger nearing retirement, the Technical University as early as 2006 set in motion the protracted search process for an outstanding, internationally renowned expert in the fields of brewing and beverage production who would allow Weihenstephan to maintain its reputation as a world-class centre for brewing research and teaching.

Analysts have now placed their bets on a private equity buyer. Unlike any industry buyer, private equity would offer the additional benefit of leaving AB-InBev with the Beck’s brand. According to what has been leaked to the press, AB-InBev appears keen on keeping the Beck’s brand even if the rest of its German portfolio were sold.