Slovenian beverage group Pivovarna Lasko has failed in its bid to acquire 52% of a Belgrade-based brewer, according to Slovene Press Agency, June 7. Serbian Privatisation Agency said that the competition for the stake in Beogradska industrija piva (BIP) was won by a Swedish-Lithuanian consortium.

While United Nordic Beverges of Sweden and Alita of Lithuania offered EUR 4.5 per share or a total of EUR 21.4m for the 51.9% stake in BIP, Pivovarna Lasko was prepared to pay EUR 2.5 per share or EUR 11.8m for the stake.

The Slovenian group, whose flagship product is beer, was willing to invest another EUR 9m, or twice as much as the selected consortium in what used to be the largest Serbian brewer.

This was not enough to make up for the difference in the price offered for the ownership stake.

Only two bidders applied for the call for tenders for BIP's takeover.

Virgil Mailat, general manager and one of the six shareholders of Bere Mures, the second largest Romanian-held company on the beer market, says Romania's EU integration has been changing export destinations for local producers, Ziarul Financiar published June 11.

With exports to the Republic of Moldova dropped due to taxes, the company is looking towards the Hungarian and Bulgarian markets. "We had a warehouse, we were selling on the market in the Republic of Moldova, but now we have withdrawn and are looking to expand towards Hungary and possibly Bulgaria," said Virgil Mailat. He added that, unfortunately, two months after accession, beer sales in Romania registered a shock, due to the flood of imported products from Bulgaria.

"The South of the country is full of Bulgarian beer, at dumping prices - high volumes at small prices," Mailat stated. The general manager of Bere Mures added that, in order to increase the company's competitiveness, he would attempt to enter onto the market of beer bottled in glass containers, which would implicitly involve investments in bottling.

Efes Breweries International NV said its wholly owned unit, Efes Karaganda Brewery JSC, has secured a 31.7 mln eur loan from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to boost the company's expansion in Kazakhstan, AFX News Limited reported June 13.

Efes Breweries is a 70 pct subsidiary of Anadolu Efes Biracilik ve Malt Sanayi AS, a Turkish beverage group selling beer, soft drinks, malt and hops in Turkey, Eastern Europe and the CIS.

DURST MALZ Heinrich Malzfabriken and Malzfabrik Landsberg have concluded a deal with the target of entering together the barley and malt market and the Malzfabrik Landsberg to develop its production capacity from the present 28,000 tonnes to 60,000 tones by 2009, Durst Malz communicated E-malt on June 6.

Heine of Peine, Germany, constructs a malthouse in the port of Hamburg, 75,000 tons; They will shut an old unit of 30,000 tons at Peine.

Simpsons of Berwick, U.K., will expand their Berwick plant by 30 – 40,000 tons.

Avangard, Moscow/Bremen, confirmed the completion of the half-finished malting tower at Koblenz, Germany, capacity 80,000 tons.

Soufflet has started construction of a 100,000 tons plant in Romania. Analysts assume that a few more old factories will be shut down in that country.

Soufflet will also build a 130,000 tons malthouse at their headquarters in Nogent, France, expanding their own capacity to 750,000 tons in France.

It is expected that Spain will hardly need any imports; it will probably even supply part of the Portuguese demand, market analysts commented on June 4.

The import demand of Italy and Greece is seen stable at minimum 100,000 tons.

Total malting barley demand in Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria is 370,000 tons, the share of imported barley is expected high.

It is likely that the Czech and Slovak industries must import malting barley as well; the industry awaits the harvest with anxiety.

Poland’s total needs are almost 400,000 tons. Also this country will need substantial supplies from the outside.

As usual the EU, especially France, must deliver malting barley to other Mediterranean and Balkan markets, about 100 – 150,000 tons.

The drought and heat in Russia and the Ukraine raises the question of a possibly large import demand in those two countries.