IPO to go ahead

On 1 December the Belgian brewer Interbrew went public on the Euronext exchange in Brussels by issuing 88.2 million shares (or 21 % of the company) at an asking price of € 30 to € 38. The offer had been more than four times subscribed. Interbrew’s shares opened at € 34. It is believed that the IPO will put up to € 3.3 billion into Interbrew’s coffers to be spent on continuing its acquisition programme. Interbrew’s market capitalisation will range between € 12.6 billion and € 16 billion. In 1999 Interbrew sold 55.7 million hl of beer world wide. In 2000 its output will have reached 80 million hl, including the UK brewers’ output acquired several months ago. Interbrew now ranks second behind Anheuser-Busch in the global brewers’ Top 10 ranking..

Coors closes brewery

Adolph Coors Co. announced it would close its money-losing brewery in Zaragoza by the end of this year, laying off 100 people. Chairman Peter Coors said that closing the plant was consistent with the company’s strategy to focus on resources that offer better growth potential and return. The US No. 3 brewer bought the Spanish brewery in 1994 but has suffered operating losses since in a highly competitive market.

Focus on new plants: Krombacher Brewery, Bernhard Schadeberg GmbH & Co., Kreuztal-Krombach "Innopas EBS" pasteurisation concept from KHS

With the "Innopas EBS" pasteuriser, money and energy is saved, as shown in a pilot project at Krombacher brewery.

With an output of 4.85 million hectoliter in 1999 and a turnover of DM 819 million, Krombacher brewery holds an important positon in the German beer market.

Three-shift Production

Six bottling lines are installed in Krombacher’s completely new bottling plant erected approximately 10 years ago. The production runs year round in a three-shift operation. Only slight sales fluctuations are noticeable during the summer months, so Krombacher maintains a nearly constantly high demand regardless of the season.

Variety of packagings

Flexibility is a must considering the variety of packagings offered by Krombacher. The 0.
....

So it’s drinks now

In the old days it used to be "keep your customers satisfied". Now it’s also "keep the analysts happy". For years, actually since the 1997 merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan into Diageo, the jury (read the financial markets) has been undecided whether to think Diageo a success or not. When Guinness and Grand Metropolitan merged, the pundits commented: "two good concerns with an alcohol problem". But since then, Diageo has come full circle.
With the disposal of the Pillsbury food division (sold to General Mill, USA) and the planned IPO of Burger King (11,000 outlets world-wide and £202 million in profit), the new CEO, Paul Walsh (45), reaffirmed the strategic decision to refocus Diageo as a global beverage alcohol business.98 billion.5% - followed by UDV’s at 20..

Let’s get rid of these

S&N is not the only leisure retailer willing to offload some of its pubs. Bass is also rumoured to be prepared to sell more about 1,000 of its 3,000 strong pub portfolio in order to concentrate on branded pub chains such as All Bar One, Harvester and Edward’s as well as its hotel chains such as Holiday Inn and Inter-Continental.
During the 48 weeks to 30 September, Bass said that there had been further polarisation between the branded pubs with profit growth of 10% and the poorer performing unbranded local pubs. Last but not least, Whitbread is expected to announce the disposal of up to 300 pubs when it releases its half-year results at the end of October..

Blame it on the weather

With S&N’s western European acquisition scheme completed, the company is looking east for prospective targets. The City of London has been abuzz with rumour that S&N would hitch up with Efes or even Carlsberg to enter eastern European markets. However, the City has also been responsible for S&N’s share price taking a bit of a tumble at the beginning of September when brokers issued downgrades for this year and next. The City thinks that the poor English summer will hit earnings, especially as concerns S&N’s key pub chain Chef & Brewer. The summer of 2000 has been the coldest summer for 51 years. The last time the UK had a bad summer was in 1998 when sales dropped 15%. S&N is believed to be getting ready to sell 500 pubs for an estimated £250 million..

Interbrew’s Bass deal under UK review

With the European Commission (EC) having referred Interbrew’s £2.3 billion purchase of Bass’ beer division to the UK’s Department of Trade & Industry for competition scrutiny, Interbrew completed the acquisition of Bass Brewers. Thus in August Bass’ interest in brewing ended formally.
The deal with Interbrew was only conditional on EC approval. Interbrew has announced that it will co-operate fully with the UK authorities in their review of the acquisition of Bass Brewers. Pending that review, Bass Brewers and Interbrew UK (the former Whitbread Beer Company) will remain as separate companies. This view was voiced by Hugh Osmond, chairman of the Punch group, the UK’s leading pub operator.
In the wake of the EC’s announcement, a game of musical chairs ensued.1%..

Mahou to increase market share

Spanish brewer Mahou SA will buy out fellow brewer San Miguel SA from Groupe Danone in a deal worth US$281.5 million. This deal will allow Mahou to nearly double its market share from 17% to 31%. Mahou which is 33% owned by Groupe Danone announced as early as March that it wanted to buy out 70% of San Miguel from Danone. The merger is being investigated by Spain’s competition tribunal at the request of the Ministry of Economics to decide whether the deal will harm competition in the Spanish brewing Industry. A decision, which will be non-binding, is expected before October.

Shiny and new

The Klin Brewery, in which Sun Interbrew has a 75% stake, expects to increase output to 2.0 million hl beer this year, up from 1.6 million hl last year. The production increase is partly due to a large-scale modernisation scheme valued at US$70 million, of which US$45 million will be spent this year. The modernisation and expansion scheme will bring up annual capacity to 4.0 million hl beer. Last year the Klin Brewery doubled its pre-tax profit to US$13.4 million.

There is a rumour afloat...

... that Interbrew’s US$10 billion stock market flotation scheduled for this year may have to be postponed. Some London analysts seem to believe that a flotation was too ambitious a move while the company’s deal to buy Bass’s and Whitbread’s brewing interests was still reviewed under the provisions of the UK’s Fair Trading Act. Interbrew officials played down speculations that the float would have to be postponed.