Heineken rumoured to be frontrunner for Schincariol

Following SABMiller’s bid for Foster’s the international rumour mill is working overtime. Call it a coincidence or clever timing: on 21 June 2011, the day SABMiller made overtures to Foster’s and was rejected, Heineken’s CFO Rene Hooft Graafland gave an interview in which he implicitly ruled out a multi-billion dollar counterbid for Australia’s Foster’s Group. But he also said that it’s "better to spend your money on Mexico, Brazil, or Africa or Asian markets."

What fired the imagination of armchair strategists was that he declined to comment on Heineken’s interest in Schincariol, Brazil’s privately owned second-largest brewer, which is reportedly up for sale for USD 2 billion. The FEMSA deal handed Brazil’s number three brewer Kaiser to Heineken.

Both Heineken and SABMiller are believed to be in hot pursuit of Schincariol. But with SABMiller planning to splash out on Foster’s, many think that SABMiller will not have the means to take over Schincariol as well.

Which puts the spotlight on Heineken.

Although Mr Hooft Graafland played down Heineken’s interests in Schincariol by saying that "in Brazil, you would look at acquisitions, but there is no necessity to do deals", market observers think otherwise.

Who would have thought that the final round in the consolidation of the beer industry would get so exciting?