Carlsberg A/S confirms that the CBC Group, which is the partner of Carlsberg Breweries in Romania and Israel, has indicated an interest in acquiring Carlsberg's 95.65% stake in Türk Tuborg Bira ve Malt Sanayi A.Ş. and that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the parties on 27 March 2008 to that respect, according to Carlsberg’s press release, March 27.

Details of the transaction are still subject to discussion and final agreement. A further announcement will be made in due course.

Carlsberg is one of the leading brewery groups in the world, with a large portfolio of beer and soft drinks brands. Its flagship brand – Carlsberg – is one of the fastest-growing and best-known beer brands in the world. More than 30,000 people work for Carlsberg in 48 countries, and its products are sold in more than 150 markets. In 2007 Carlsberg sold more than 115 million hectolitres of beer, which is about 95 million bottles of beer a day.

Famous Czech beer trademarks are slowly losing their specific taste and becoming unified after most of the large breweries in the Czech Republic were bought by foreign concerns, the daily Lidove noviny (LN) wrote according to CTK, March 26.

Eight of ten "Czech" beers are actually made by foreign producers, the paper adds.

It recalls that the Dutch Heineken group is to control three large Czech beer companies, while the most famous Czech brewery Plzensky Prazdroj (Pilsner Urquell), west Bohemia, is part of the world's second biggest beer-producing concern SABMiller.

The Budvar brewery in Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia, and the Moravian PMS beer group are the only large beer producers in the country that are still in Czech hands.

A number of beer experts and consumers point out that the mergers and acquisitions of Czech breweries by foreign investors considerably damage the unique quality of Czech beer, so the traditional Czech drink is slowly turning into flat "Eurobeer," the paper writes.

Large breweries namely want to minimise the production costs and therefore they buy lower-quality raw materials in a smaller amount and dilute them with more water, which makes the final taste unified.

Moreover, the repeated saturation of beer with carbon dioxide to increase its durability ...More Info

Shares advance on speculation that the Guinness maker is planning a tie-up with Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch, Hemscott reported March 26.

Speculation about a deal between the groups comes after Beer Business Daily, an influential trade magazine in America, reported that officials at Diageo-Guinness USA (DGUSA), the UK group's US beer company, had cancelled meetings with several of its distributors.

"DGUSA planning meetings have been postponed, incentive trips cancelled, training postponed indefinitely and the word on the street is that Diageo has called a meeting/conference call in April,” the magazine reported.

Analysts speculated that Diageo could be close to agreeing a licence with Anheuser-Busch to distribute the UK group's Guinness and ready to drink brands (RTD) in North America. Diageo already has a similar arrangement in place with Anheuser to distribute its Budweiser brand in Ireland.

"A Guinness licence in North America is plausible," said Citi analyst Philip Morrisey. "Historically, there have been discussions about Anheuser distributing Diageo’s beer and RTD brands in the US, the stumbling block being Diageo’s reluctance to cede control and EBIT, distribution of these brands being in an entirely separate organisation from its US wine and spirits brands.

"A tie-up now could prove timely since although the Guinness brand continues to ...More Info

United Breweries (Holdings) Ltd's chairman Vijay Mallya may buy back the 37.5 pct stake that Amsterdam-based brewer Heineken NV holds in his company, the Economic Times said March 28.

'If you ask me whether I would buy them back, my answer is at today's price, sure, I am a buyer,' the report quoting chairman Mallya as saying.

However, a UB Group official said there is no immediate trigger to approach Heineken with a buyback offer.

Heineken will inherit the stake in UB from Scottish & Newcastle after its takeover of the British brewer.

But, Heineken sources said the Dutch brewer has no plan to sell its stake, the report added. A Heineken spokesperson said, 'Heineken looks forward to a potential co-operation with Mr Mallya and we are in discussion with him and with our partner in Asia. It is, however, too early to say more.'

The promoter group holds 74.98 pct of UB Group, of which 37.49 pct is with Mallya and the remainder is with Scottish and Newcastle.

Denmark's Carlsberg may be able to secure more than the 10 percent stake reserved for it in the initial public offering of state-owned Vietnamese brewer Habeco, the Danish brewer said, according to Reuters, March 27.

Habeco, Vietnam's second-largest brewer, planned to raise at least $108 million from selling an additional 15 percent of its shares in the IPO, but Carlsberg said the brewer's offering had not been fully subscribed.

"We have had 10 percent of the shares reserved for us, but it looks as if we can get more shares as the IPO has not been fully subscribed," said Henrik Andersen, the Director of Vietnam-based Carlsberg joint venture South East Asia Brewery Ltd.

"The IPO deadline is today, so we won't know the exact result until tomorrow," Andersen added.

Last year, Vietnamese authorities approved plans by Habeco and Carlsberg to form a strategic partnership under which Carlsberg had the 10 percent stake reserved.

Habeco has not said when it plans to list its shares as stock market debuts are separate from IPOs in Vietnam.

Habeco, or the Hanoi Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, ranks second after Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp or Sabeco.

Habeco in February delayed its IPO due to adverse market conditions after Sabeco in January ...More Info

According to German Statistic Department, country’s malt exports for July2007-January2008 period constituted 211,000 tonnes, which is 12% lower than in the same period of last year, analysts reported March 27.

Malt imports reached 226,000 tonnes, 25% higher than a year ago (181,000 tonnes).

After last week sharp decrease, malting barley prices are recovering this week due to higher interest from European maltsters, La Depeche published March 28. For the new crop the market is still little developed with steady prices.

Feed barley market remains still with almost no activity this week. The prices slightly decreased.

The CWB released its March 2008 Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2007-08 crop year, in a press release, March 27.

Malting barley

The malting barley PRO is unchanged as international prices remained stable during the past month. With most of the sales for the 2007-08 pool complete, the variability due to price changes is also very limited.

Feed barley

The feed barley PRO remains unchanged from the mid-month forecast. Tight global supplies and Saudi Arabian demand will be the main features of the global barley market until the arrival of new crop supplies. New crop prospects remain largely unchanged this month, with favourable weather across most of Europe and the Black Sea region.

Cash prices for both malting and feed barley continued to be steady to up a few cents during the past two weeks, despite the fact that prices being offered for 2008 malting barley contracts have slid back a little from the highs set a few weeks ago, Farm & Ranch Guide reported March 27.

“The cash market for malting barley has been hanging in there,” said John Zietz, barley supply chain manager at the Cargill Malt Plant in Spiritwood, N.D. “We haven't changed our bid in the past couple of weeks, so I guess you could say the market has been steady. Supplies are a little tighter than what they have been, so that enters into the equation.

“As far as for the new crop contracts, the activity has been steady. When the price levels were a little bit higher there was probably a little more activity, but even with the lower prices there has been activity in the past few weeks.”

Cargill started issuing contracts for the 2008 malting barley crop back in late October of last year in an effort to compete with the other crops for committed acres, according to Zietz.

“We like being out early so people can have a ...More Info

W. Grzebisz, K. Przygocka-Cyna
Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural University, Poznań, Poland

Abstract
The basic concept of malt barley production is to reach a dilution effect of nitrogen accumulated by grains at maturity. A three-year study was undertaken to establish time courses of nitrogen (N) and sulphur (S) in leaves as the prerequisite tool for total grain yield prognosis. Sulphur application at the lowest rate of 25 kg/ha significantly increased yields of grain in 2001 and 2003. The time course of N and S concentrations in leaves over the growing season showed declining trends for N and variable for S. At mid tillering (BBA-25) both N and S, but at BBA-31 only N concentrations significantly responded to S rates, and in turn affected patterns of N concentration in barley organs up to maturity. Sulphur concentrations and N:S ratios were useful tools to make reliable prognosis of total grain yield of barley at BBA-31 as indicated by the obtained regression equations. The threshold values for N and S in leaves in order to achieve the maximum total grain yield are 0.4% for S and 8.0 for the N:S ratio as presented by the graphical procedure.
... Load full article, 7 pages, 155 Kb, PDF file