Pabst Brewing Company sold again for allegedly USD 700 million
If the rumoured figures are true, Dean Metropoulos, the private equity tycoon, made a killing when he sold the Pabst Brewing Company (PBC) to the Russian beverage company Oasis for USD 700 million (EUR 560 million) in cash.
Mr Metropoulos bought PBC in 2010 for about USD 250 million. Since taking over PBC, Mr Metropoulos has turned management of the company over to his sons, Evan and Daren, who have served as co-chief executives. They are expected to step down after the sale, which is believed to be completed in mid-November this year.
PBC’s portfolio of brands includes cheap malts such as Colt 45, Schlitz and Old Milwaukee, as well as regional favorites such as Lone Star ("The National Beer of Texas"), National Bohemian (a Baltimore classic from the "Land of Pleasant Living"), Rainier ("We Heart Seattle") and Old Style ("Chicago’s Beer since 1902.")
While its main brand Pabst Blue Ribbon has done well with the hipster set, and sales have doubled since 2004, the broader business has proven weak in sales. Last year was PBC’s slowest for beer shipments in at least a decade, according to data from Beer Marketer’s Insights. PBC’s volume in 2013 was 5.5 million bbl beer (6.4 million hl), down from 5.6 million bbl in 2012, according to Beer Marketers Insights, while Pabst Blue Ribbon surged to 2.7 million bbl (3.2 million hl), up from 2.3 million bbl in 2011.
The buyer is Oasis Beverages, an eastern European brewer and beverages distributor with stakes in Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and the Ukraine. Backing Oasis is TSG Consumer Partners, an American private equity firm focused on consumer goods, which will take a minority stake.
Oasis will own PBC and will have its headquarters remain in Los Angeles, but MillerCoors will continue making the beer for several more years.
The very secretive Oasis was established by the co-owners of private equity firm Detroit Investments, Eugene Kashper and Alexander Lifshits. In 1998 Mr Kashper and Mr Lifshits began putting together the Ivan Taranov group of breweries – PIT – in Russia with three plants. These they sold to Dutch brewer Heineken in 2005 for USD 560 million at an EBITDA multiple of 14. Not cheap. But those were the heady days in Russian brewing when everybody thought that beer consumption would rise. They then went on to set up the Moscow Brewing Company with an initial capacity of 2.4 million hl for allegedly USD 200 million. They have since built a brewery in Almaty, Kazakhstan, bought into a juice company in Belarus and acquired several breweries in the Ukraine.
Finally, they have moved into the United States.
