The Sapporo Breweries Ltd. unit of Japan's Sapporo Holdings Ltd. said October 17 it succeeded in its bid to buy up Canadian Sleeman Breweries Ltd., in a deal worth CA$300 million (US$265 million), Reuters communicated October 17.

The two companies said that Sapporo had acquired 95.8 percent of Sleeman stock and would now exercise its right to acquire the remaining shares. The deal is worth CA$400 million including debt.

Sapporo last week received the green light from Canada's Ministry of Industry to go ahead with C$17.50-a share offer for Sleeman, which was the country's third largest brewer with some 7 percent of the Canadian beer market.

The cash offer represented a lofty 50 percent premium over the price of Sleeman shares on May 11, a day before the Guelph, Ontario-based brewer announced it was looking for a buyer. ($1=$1.14 Canadian)

Domestic beer sales rose 11.8% year-on-year to 3.9 million hl in January-September 2006, shows data released by the Union of Brewers in Bulgaria (UBB), Dnevnik released October 16.
Actual beer consumption is somewhat higher if the business of locally-owned brewer Ledenika&MM is taken into account. The company is not a UBB member and therefore does not report on its sales performance to the union.

Beer sales fell 35.5% month-on-month to 432,500 hl in September as the market left behind the summer consumption peak.

Heineken-owned Zagorka AD outsold the competition in September, moving 149,700 hl. The company is also the YTD champ with 1.245 million hl.

Carlsberg pipped Kamenitza for the runner-up spot in September with 113,961 hl versus 110,900 hl for its InBev-owned rival.

However, in the YTD rankings, Kamenitza is ahead of Carlsberg with 1.2 million hl.
InBev, Heineken and Carlsberg Bulgaria own 76% of the local beer market.

The UBB members logged sales of 4.78 million hl in 2005, a fractional improvement on the 4.73 million hl in sales recorded the year before.

Lion Nathan's final legal bid to shore up its failed AU$420 million takeover of Coopers Brewery was scuttled in court October 16, The Advertiser posted October 17. Lion argued a share buy-back in 2003 was out of order and it should have had the opportunity to buy Coopers shares.

Last year, the Federal Court disagreed and the decision was backed up by the Full Court of the Federal Court on October 16. Lion is unlikely to take the matter to the High Court.

Coopers chairman and marketing director Glenn Cooper said October 16 the company could now focus on growing its business.

Between August 2005 and July 2006, the turnover in retail sales of beer in Poland amounted to around PLN8.5 billion, which corresponded to 50 percent of the total revenue from sales of all alcoholic beverages.

Year-on-year, beer sales increased by 7 percent.

In terms of sales volume, the Polish beer market ranked second in Central Eastern Europe with 1.85 billion litres, after Russia, where the respective figure was 5.3 billion litres. According to Tomasz Glos from AC Nielsen, the average price of one litre of beer in Poland amounts to $1.4 and is the highest in relation to income per capita in the region. In the Czech Republic, the respective price is $0.74.

The data on the domestic beer market was presented during the annual meeting of Polish brewers, which was held in Kielce. The event will also feature scientists speaking about the latest solutions and technologies employed in beer production.

According to the figures released by DEFRA (The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), the UK barley production is seen lower at 5.177 million t compared to 5.495 million t in 2005, as both winter and spring plantings were reduced, respectively to 0.382 million ha (-1%) and 0.498 million ha (-10%), the Home-Grown Cereals Authority recently released.

The improved winter barley yields of 6.7t/ha resulting in a higher winter barley production of 2.575 million t are not predicted to offset the significant 13% decrease of the spring barley output, settling at 2.602 million t compared to 2.990 million t the year before.

In September, Ukraine exported 1.17 million t of barley. According to IA "APK-Inform" with reference to customs data, this is an absolute record for this period in the history of Ukraine, AgriMarket.Info released October 13.

During the analogous period of 2005/06, the export of this grain was 640,300 tonnes.

The largest buyer of Ukrainian barley in September 2006 was Saudi Arabia, which imported about 757,000 tonnes.

As it was previously noted, the Ukrainian Government introduced on October 11 quotation for grains export. According to the preliminary data, quota for barley export to the end of the year is 600,000 t.