InBev plans to raise $9.8 billion in equity for its $52 billion purchase of Anheuser Busch before the merger is closed by the end of the year, Dow Jones communicated on September, 25.

InBev is holding a meeting on September, 29 for shareholders to vote on the merger. The company's largest shareholders have already said they will vote for the deal, which values Anheuser at $70 a share.

The decision to raise equity before the merger's close means InBev won't have to draw on a bridge loan to complete the acquisition, experts explain.

Anheuser-Busch set October, 3 as the record date for its special meeting for shareholders to consider InBev’s $52 billion takeover, the company communicated on September, 24.

At the closing of the transaction with InBev, shareholders of Anheuser-Busch will be entitled to receive $70 for each share of stock held by them, and Anheuser-Busch will become a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of InBev.

Anheuser-Busch shareholders of record as of the close of business on Oct. 3 will be entitled to vote at the special meeting. The brewing company expects to establish the date for the special meeting when SEC review of its proxy statement is completed.

As announced on July 13, 2008, the board of directors of Anheuser-Busch unanimously recommends that Anheuser-Busch shareholders approve the transaction with InBev. Closing of the transaction is subject to approval of shareholders of both companies, necessary regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Tsingtao Brewery Group Company Limited, the parent of China’s top beer maker, Tsingtao Brewery, has increased its shareholding in the brewing company through the trading system of the Shanghai Stock Exchange on September, 25, according to an official press release.

Tsingtao Group increased its stock in the company by 1,879,950 shares. Immediately prior to this, the parent held 399,820,000 shares of the enterprise, representing approximately 30.56% of the total issued shares. Immediately following this share acquisition, Tsingtao Group held 401,699,950 shares of the company, representing approximately 30.71% of the total issued shares.

The parent would continue to increase its stake in the listed company over the next 12 months, but the total stake would not exceed 2 percent of Tsingtao Brewery's total floated shares, it was reported.

Local-currency A shares in Shanghai-listed Tsingtao Brewery closed up 4.82 percent at 15.89 yuan on September, 25, outperforming the overall market's, Reuters communicated.

Last week, China’s government unveiled an unprecedented package of steps to bolster the sagging stock markets, including scrapping taxes on stock purchases and encouraging state-owned corporations to buy back shares of their listed units.

Brewers in India are finding 2008 a challenging year with rising barley prices and growing competition denting margins, Reuters cited officials and analysts on September, 25.

Global firms pour out new offerings for a free-spending consumer class that is growing by the day. Nevertheless, beer makers still face high taxes, prohibition laws and sluggish sales.

"From a two-player market, we now have three new entrants vying for their slice of the pie. Overall industry profitability is probably negative or barely positive," said Vivek Chhabra, regional director, South Asia, Asia Pacific Breweries.

"Barley prices have gone up and beer prices have gone up as a result so this year we are seeing some slowdown in sales of beer," said Nupur Sharma, analyst at Euromonitor.

Analysts report that the beer market in India grew 18 percent, in volume terms, in 2007 over 2006. Euromonitor International expects this growth to be a maximum 14 percent in 2008 over 2007.

According to U.S. Grains Council data, input costs are growing – Indian barley prices are up over 19% on year. The barley price hike is attributed by analysts to strong demand from brewers.

India's beer market, which stood at $2.5 billion in 2007, is seen growing to $3.1 billion ...More Info

The Australian Foster’s Group has appointed Ian Johnston as CEO, the company announced on September, 26.

Mr Johnston, a director of Foster's, stepped in as the acting CEO in July following the exit of Trevor O'Hoy after a profit warning that forced a review of the group's troubled wine business.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank revealed it had built up a 5.3 per cent stake in the brewing company, the Australian communicated on September, 26.

The timing of the announcements sparked speculation Foster's could be preparing for a takeover battle. However, a person familiar with the situation said Mr Johnston's appointment was in train prior to Deutsche Bank's disclosure and a short-list of internal and external candidates had been made.

But with rumours Deutsche Bank had been accumulating shares for some weeks, it was a likely factor in chairman David Crawford's decision.

The Australian brewer had previously said an appointment would be made before the end of 2008. However, finding a chief executive while conducting a review may create a potential quandary, experts comment.

Deutsche Bank's disclosure was made to the Australian Stock Exchange after the close of trade on September, 25. The majority of the stock was acquired in relation to lending arrangements and stock ...More Info

OOO Vilion, a Russian malting barley trader, will build in Russia’s Tambov region a malthouse with annual production capacity of 120 thousand tonnes and an elevator with a simultaneous storage capacity of 100 thousand tonnes, Kommersant posted on September, 24.

The 1.3 bln roubles construction is to be finished by 2012, the company said.

Experts say that the capacities of the nation’s operating malthouses are underloaded, as a result of which the construction of a series of new enterprises was frozen (particularly that planned by Russia’s largest malt producer Russkiy Solod OAO). At the same time, analysts point out the possibility of supplying malt to China and European countries.

According to the agreement Vilion made with the regional authorities at the International Investment Forum Sochi-2008, the construction of the elevator is to be started next year and finished by the middle of 2010. At the second stage the malthouse is to be built. The planned payback period is five – seven years, the company informed.

Besides, Vilion reported it will expand its barley acreage in the region.

OOO Vilion grows and supplies malting barley from Russia’s Central Black Earth region. The company’s total sown area is 15 thousand ha, annual production volume – 100 thousand ...More Info

India is hopeful of reaping a good spring (Rabi) harvest of barley this season, a senior government official was quoted as saying by IANS on September, 24.

“There are favourable conditions. We hope for a better Rabi crop this season,” Agriculture Secretary T. Nanda Kumar said.

“We do not see any problem in meeting the target for the Rabi crop for 2008-09,” he added.

Kumar earlier told a national conference on agriculture for Rabi campaign that the states should make all possible efforts to maintain high spring crop output.

The agriculture ministry has set a target of 1.5 million tonnes for barley as compared to 1.23 million tonnes in 2007-08, it is reported.

Feed barley prices that held steadily during the week are again tending downwards, the French La Depeche published on September, 25.

Prices are subject to strong pressure from the big feed crop harvested by Europe and Black Sea countries. Barley price delivered Rouen has slid off to 142 €/t – a drop of €4 from last week.

Malting barley has undergone a great drop in prices, with the market at a complete standstill. Maltsters have abandoned the territory and buyers are less active, experts report.

Canadian Wheat Board released its final Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2007/08 crop year on its official site on September, 26.

According to CWB, designated barley values increased C$4 per tonne while feed barley prices were down C$3.

A weakening of the overall feed barley market has negatively affected sales returns on the PRO and reduced it from its July level, the Board reported.

The small increase shown by malting barley over the July PRO resulted largely from an increase in pool size that allowed the pool to capture higher prices and boost the overall PRO slightly, the CWB said.

China’s increase in malting barley production is putting one of Australia’s traditional exports at risk, ABC Rural communicated on September, 25.

Australia normally supplies 1.5 million of the 2 million tonnes of barley China needs each year. But with rising world prices and two years of drought in Australia, China looked for alternatives.

Wang Gang, Australian Barley Board’s (ABB) chief representative in Beijing, said China was also competing with Australia in export markets.

"There's around 1 million tonnes of malt that's over supplied, so China needed to find a new market to export malt. Last year the country exported a significant quantity of malt to Asian market. This is Australian maltsters’ traditional sphere of activity,” he said.

A Portage la Prairie area research centre is embarking on a project to grow hops for the beer necessities, Canada’s Daily Graphic posted on September, 25.

Hops are rarely grown in Manitoba. In order to determine whether it has any potential for success in the region, it is being tested at a trial plot in Portage, it was reported.

Brian Hunt, business development specialist for vegetables, based in Carman, from Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives (MAFRI), said the hop production was planted in May at Canada Manitoba Crop Diversification Centre (CMCDC) at River Road in Portage, and is expected to take three years for the plants to fully mature before they are ready to harvest.

He noted a worldwide shortage makes hops a profitable crop to invest in at this time.

"Many farmers are interested in developing it," he said.

Dominik Szwajgier, Adam Wasko, Josef Zapp and Zdzislaw Targonski

Abstract

J. Inst. Brew. 113(2), 185–195, 2007 Ferulic acid (4-hydroxy-3-methoxycinnamic acid), predominantly in ester form in arabinoxylan chains, is the main phenolic acid present in barley and malt. Only about 1% of the total ferulic acid in barley is present in the free form. A number of previous works concerned the contents of free and esterified ferulic acid in a broad range of popular beers, but there is little information about the possible composition of feruloylated oligosaccharides in beers. The aim of this preliminary work was to purify the feruloylated oligosaccharides from lager beers (by the means of preparative chromatography) followed by composition elucidation using TLC, HPLC with RI or UV detection and 1H-NMR. Indeed, the qualitative analyses of isolated fractions from beer revealed that the fractions contained ferulic acid in the ester form (as proven after mild alkaline hydrolysis). It was also shown that molecular masses of oligosaccharides present in the purified beer fractions were similar to the masses of arabinose and xylooligosaccharides in the range of xylose to xylohexaose. Although a number of purified beer samples contained oligosaccharides of higher molecular masses, these were not further characterized. Taking under consideration the presented results, it can be concluded that beer can be a good source of feruloylated oligosaccharides, significant in the context of human health benefits. Key words: Antioxidant activity, beer, ferulic acid, feruloylated oligosaccharide, free radical. Load full article, 11 pages, 2836 Kb, PDF file