Profit growth

For the year ended 31 March, South African Breweries (SAB) reported a 26.5% rise in pre-tax profits from US$600 million to US$764 which has been boosted by an exceptional gain of US$76 million from the sale of SAB’s PGSI subsidiary. While turnover fell from US$6.18 billion to US$5.42 billion, earnings per share improved from 43.9 cents to 64.3 cents; adjusted earnings per share (minus the effect of the PGSI disposal) were 56.6 cents compared with 54 cents for the previous year. The company announced a proposed final distribution of 18.5 cents which makes a total dividend of 25 cents for the year.
SAB confirmed it was intending to either list or sell its hotels and gaming division later in the year..

The usual suspects...

... had been wooing Bass Brewers for months, but on 14 June Interbrew announced that it reached agreement with Bass Plc to purchase its brewing activities for £2.3 billion (US$3.45 billion). Bass‘ pub estate does not form part of the deal. The completion of the deal is subject to regulatory agreement. With Bass Brewers and the former Whitbread Beer Company in its portfolio, Interbrew allegedly controls 32% of the UK beer market. Pending regulatory approval of the Bass Brewers acquisition, Interbrew UK (formerly Whitbread Beer Company) and Bass Brewers will continue to operate individually. Bass owns six breweries in the UK and three in the Czech Republic (the Staropramen brand). This deal will make Interbrew the second largest brewer in the Czech Republic with a market share of 13%..

It’s a deal

After months of rumour, Interbrew finally announced on 25 May that it completed the acquisition of Whitbread PLC’s brewing business for £400 million (US$602 million). Thus Interbrew has regained full control of its Stella Artois brand which has been brewed in the UK by Whitbread Brewing since 1976. Following this transaction, Interbrew’s market share in the UK will be 10%. Whitbread is the third largest brewer in the UK with a turnover of £1.1 billion for the year ended 4 March 2000. It owns three breweries and employs 3,900 people. In addition to Stella Artois, the brand portfolio includes Boddintons, Murphy’s and Heine-ken, the latter being brewed by Whitbread under licence. The current transaction does not include the Heineken licence agreement which will be retained by Whitbread Plc..

Olé

Last year, Spanish brewers increased their output 3.5%, placing the country third in Production was 25.8 million hl beer worth US$2 billion according to the brewers’ association Cerveceros de España. There were ten brewing groups employing 8,500 people in 22 breweries. Turnover was Ptas 355.3 billion (US$2.05 billion). Exports for 1999 rose 13% on the previous year. After having bought out Grupo Cruzcampo Heineken now dominates the market. This year Mahou, Spain’s second-largest brewer, signed a contract with Carls-berg to brew, market and distribute the Danish brewer’s beer. Mahou has received the rights to the Carlsberg brand from Grupo Cruzcampo.

Flowers in your hair

Watch out for brewers strutting their stuff at the 36th Beer & Flowers festival in the small Slovenian town of Lasko. From 12 - 16 July, 2000 more than 120,000 beer-loving garden enthusiasts will come to Lasko for beer, botanics and bottoms-up, the highlight of the festival being the beer and flowers parade. The event is sponsored by Pivovarna Lasko (1.1 million hl) which holds a 52% share in the Slovenian beer market and posted 15.79 billion tolars (US$72.3 million) in turnover for 1999, up 1% from the previous year. Net operating profit was 1.36 billion tolars, an increase of 4% over 1998. Exports were 24%, the majority of which went to Italy and the states of the former Yugoslavia. For information on the Beer & Flowers festival, visit www.pivo-lasko.si

Flexing its muscle

Baltika’s General Director Taimuraz Bolloyev has been quoted saying that Baltika intends to buy another brewery this year. It already owns controlling stakes in the brewery of the same name in St. Petersburg, Baltika-Don in Rostov-on-Don and Tula Beer near Moscow. Possible regions for an acquisition are the Urals, Siberia, central Asia or Belarus. The capacity of the brewery is supposed to be 1 to 1.5 million hl. The acquisition shall be financed by an additional share issue. Baltika plans to invest US$60 million this year, including US$20 million in Tula Beer and US$18 million in Baltika-Don.

Let them have our clone

Aiova, a St. Petersburg brewery, has announced plans to open a 350-seat pub and restaurant in Moscow. The brewer’s Tinkoff restaurant will be a replica of the namesake in St. Petersburg which serves about 1,000 guests a weekend. The new venture will be open for business by the end of the year. Aiova intends to invest US$1.5 million in the Moscow restaurant - the same amount it spent on the St. Petersburg location. A location in the capital has not been chosen yet. The brewer is also actively seeking partners for the restaurant venture. To promote the restaurant, Aiova plans to spend US$150,000 this year in both cities.

Nordic connection II

In 1999, Latvia’s Cesu Alus Brewery posted a loss of 121,077 lats (US$202,000) on a turnover of 970,336 lats and sales of 29,800 hl of beer and soft drinks. The management explained the loss by large investments in marketing and sales. On 27 April construction began for a new 200,000 hl production facility, a two-million-lats investment. Founded in 1590, Cesu Alus is one of the oldest breweries in the Nordic countries. In 1999, the Norwegian-Latvian business development fund sold 33% of voting shares in Cesu Alus to the Estonian A.Le Coq holding company (Tartu Brewery) which in turn is 80% owned by Olvi Oy, the third largest brewer in Finland with a market share of 12% in 1999.

You too

Apparently they did not want to be left out. With the brewing industry consolidating at a fast pace, Joh. Barth & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG and Hopunion Raiser, Scharrer KG, both Nuremberg, decided to merge their domestic and international operations effective of 31 July 2000. The merger will be structured as a mutual cross holdings. Thomas C. Raiser, presently a partner of Hopunion, will join Regine Barth-Daiber, Stephan Barth and Alexander Barth as a shareholder of the new corporation. It will be called Joh. Barth & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG. and will become the largest international hops company. In 1999, Haas/Barth had a share of 29.5% of the international market, Hopunion 10.6%. Together the two companies had a turnover of DM390 million (US$181.4 million) and employed 564 people.

On the prowl

Holsten-Brauerei AG, Germany’s leading brewing group with a market share of 10%, is keen to bring up its share price which has caused the brewer’s market capitalisation to decline from DM390 million in 1998 to DM374 million (US$173.9 million) at the end of 1999. It is significantly lower than Holsten’s fixed assets valued at DM700 million (US$325.6 million). On a turnover of DM1.9 billion (1998: 1.58 billion) Holsten achieved a net profit of 17.75 million (up DM2.3 million) and a net profit margin of 0.93% last year.
Although Holsten has aggressively been pursuing an expansion strategy, recently taking over a majority stake in the König-Brauerei, Duisburg, one of Germany’s top ten brewers, Holsten could itself become the target of a take-over bid..