Radeberger to sell stake in Schwechat Brewery

In a move to disentangle itself from investments which might stand in the way of a sale, Germany’s second largest brewer, Radeberger Gruppe AG, the re-named Binding AG and majority owned by Germany’s food group Oetker, has sold its 10.6 percent strategic stake in Austrian brewer Schwechat AG. The shares were sold as a package to Schwechat’s majority shareholder, the Hopfen & Malz Holding AG. In a similar move, the Oetker Group sold its 16.6 percent stake in Schwechat. Both transactions are to come into effect in 2002. No mention was made of the value of the transactions. Radeberger AG announced that the proceeds from the sale will go towards increasing its market share in Germany..

KGB for cheaper beer

Thank heavens, they ain’t the KGB. They are only beer lovers who got together earlier this year to found the Campaign for Good Beer (KGB), Austria’s equivalent to CAMRA, the UK’s Campaign for Real Ale. Prior to the General Elections held in November, the KGB launched a campaign to reduce the excise on beer to nil. The campaigners argued that it was grossly unfair that excise was levied on beer but not on wine. In good Austrian plain-speaking fashion, politicians have always maintained that the only reason excise was claimed on beer was that it was easier to collect than any form of excise on wine. The campaigners held that argument against them, saying that if this was the only reason for the tax’s existence, the tax had to go. And the sooner the better. The ÖVP won the elections..

Hit by floods

"Water, water, everywhere but lots of beer to drink" goes the rhyme... well almost. The August wave of flooding that swept through the Czech Republic didn’t spare the brewing sector. Six of the nation’s brewers, including the country’s top three breweries - SABMiller’s Pilsner Urquell, Interbrew’s Prague Breweries, and Budweiser-Budvar - were directly hit by the flood water, writes Lyle Frink from Prague.
At the top of the damage list was the small Eggenberg brewery in the southern Bohemian town of Cesky Krumlov. Located in the town’s gothic centre, the brewery was completely flooded. "The cellars, the technology, everything was under two metres of water," said board chairman Jiri Shrbeny. "We are still working on renovating the technology." The damage bill is estimated at EUR6....

Focus on new plants: Ringnes Brewery, Oslo Overall plant automation

When relocating its brewery plant, Ringnes took the opportunity to automate the overall brewing process completely. Within a very short space of time, a new system has been installed which replaced the former stand-alone solutions and provided reliable data exchange between individual plant units.

The Norwegian beer market is small but geared towards the discerning customer. 2.2 million hl of beer are produced annually, beer consumption is 51 l per capita, the lowest in Europe. Ringnes, with a market share of about 60%, is one of the leading producers of beer, water and soft drinks. Eight beer types are brewed in several domestic brewery plants. Ringnes, Lysholmer and Munkholm are the three top brands.g. was equipped with a new milling plant of the Millstar type and a lauter tun.

Open marriage

Heineken and Whitbread confirmed that the licensing agreement to brew, market and distribute two Heineken brands in the UK will come to an end when the contract expires in 2003. Heineken will then assume control of the marketing and distribution of its brand in the UK.
Following the sale of Whitbread to Interbrew in May 2000, Whitbread retained the licence to brew, market and distribute Heineken in the UK and arrangements were put in place whereby Interbrew UK became the distributor of Heineken Cold Filtered (3.4% ABV) and Heineken Export (5% ABV) in the UK. Throughout 2002 and 2003 until the contract expires, Interbrew will spend GBP14 million on marketing the brands. Far from it. Interbrew plans to put a GBP5 million marketing programme behind the brand..

Diageo to go for another share buy back

Diageo, the Smirnoff vodka to Guinness drinks group, is planning to return GBP1.0 billion of cash to its shareholders by
way of a share buy-back programme. The group believes that share buy-backs are a more tax-efficient way of returning cash to shareholders than paying them a special dividend. In October this year Diageo will receive GBP1.5 billion from the sale of the Burger King chain to a venture capital consortium of Texas Pacific, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs.
The share buy-back programme will come as a relief to some investors who feared that Diageo would take the proceeds to bolster its wine business. Wine valuations are fairly high at the moment. Earlier in the year, Diageo sold its Pillsbury food business to General Mills of the US.0 billion, earnings per share 43..

Here we go again

Could it be that ...? Is this the sign the markets have been waiting for? FINALLY, indeed Capital letter-finally, Six Continents, the former Bass group minus the breweries, has announced that it would demerge its hotel and retail divisions. This opens up the door to a merger of its pub estate with, for example, Scottish & Newcastle’s retail division, once
S&N’s own demerger plans are finalised. Of course both companies have refused to comment on the speculations, but bankers continue to believe that such a merger is too strategically and financially compelling to be allowed to be bypassed. One of the proponents of a merger between Six Continent’s and S&N’s retail division is Stuart Price, analyst at WestLBPanmure, London. On our estimates, S&N needs a cash injection and quickly..

Heineken‘s profit up 11% in first half of 2002

For the first half of 2002 net profit on ordinary activities of Heineken N.V. rose by 11 percent (EUR32m), from EUR298 million to EUR 330 million, a statement by Heineken says.
First half year operating profit was 13 percent higher, up from EUR513 million to EUR581 million. Operating profit as a percentage of net turnover increased slightly to 11.7 percent. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) increased by EUR101 million to EUR 842 million and rose as a percentage of net turnover from 16.6 percent in the first half of 2001 to 17.0 percent in the first half of 2002. Group beer volume rose 12 percent from 37.2 million hl to 41.5 million hl. Total sales of Heineken beer increased from 11 million hl to 11.4 million hl (4%). Sales of Amstel beer, at 5..

Selling the family silver

Cadburry Schweppes, London, announced that it has agreed to buy Brau und Brunnen’s 72 percent interest in the Apollinaris & Schweppes joint venture in Germany for EUR151 million. The transaction includes the Apollinaris, Heppinger and Big Apple brands and gives Cadbury Schweppes 100 percent control of Apollinaris & Schweppes. The joint venture was set up in 1991.
Apollinaris, which has been sold for over 100 years, is the best known mineral water brand in Germany. The troubled Brau und Brunnen Group, Germany’s number 3 beverage group with 18 beer brands and 7 mineral water and soft drink brands, has had to sell its 72 percent interest in Apollinaris & Schweppes to reduce its debt load which stood at DM250 million (EUR125m) at the end of 2001. Brau and Brunnen is 55..

Heineken makes public offer in Egypt

When Heineken made a public offer for up to 100 percent of the issued shares of Al Ahram Beverages Company (ABC) in Egypt, it expected to acquire at least 76 percent of the shares. By the end of September 2002 Heineken had bought 97,8 percent of the shares for which it paid USD14 per share or a total of USD280 million. The bid valued Al Ahram at circa 7.3x 2003 EV/EBITDA.
Needless to add that the public offer by Heineken had the full support and commitment of the management of ABC.
Founded in 1897, ABC was privatised in February 1997 and its shares are quoted on the Cairo Stock Exchange and the London Stock Exchange in the form of Global Depository Receipts. It is the only Egyptian brewery group with a beer output of 430,000 hl annually.8 million and net profit to USD22.8 million.