Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. announced that a majority of its shareholders voted to approve the proposed combination between InBev N.V./S.A. and Anheuser-Busch during a special shareholder meeting held on November, 12.

As it was previously reported, at the closing of the transaction, Anheuser-Busch shareholders will be entitled to receive $70 in cash for each share of outstanding Anheuser-Busch stock, and Anheuser-Busch will become a wholly owned subsidiary of InBev.

Closing of the transaction remains subject to necessary regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. A closing date has not been announced, but the parties continue to expect the deal to close before the end of the year. InBev shareholders approved the combination on September, 29.

“The proposed merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev under consideration today was a difficult decision for our board to make,” said August A. Busch IV, president and CEO, in comments made during the meeting. “In the end, the board determined that the InBev proposal is in the best interest of our shareholders. The merger also provides a promising future for our beer brands and for all stakeholders -- employees, wholesalers, retailers and our consumers.”

“Under the merger, the new company will expand Budweiser into new markets around the world, ...More Info

SABMiller plc reported on November, 13 its interim (unaudited) results for the six months to September, 30.

The brewing giant said its net income climbed to $1.42 billion in the six months through September from $958 million a year earlier.

The company’s revenue amounted to $11,166 mln during the reporting period (up by 4 percent from the six months of 2007).

EBITDA increased by 9% to $2,225 mln. Profit before tax was $2,020 mln (+28% over last year’s six month).

Basic earnings per share was 94.8 US cents (+48%), and interim dividend per share – 16 US cents (unchanged from the corresponding period in 2007).

OPERATIONAL REVIEW

Latin America

Group revenue (including share of associates) was $2,848 mln in the first half of 2008 financial year (an increase of 16% over the results of the first half in 2007). EBITDA was $474 mln (+ 8%). EBITA margin was 16.6% (17.8% last year). Lager sales volumes - 18,260 thousand hl

Lager volumes in Colombia decreased 3% against high comparatives and as a result of pressures on discretionary disposable income from high interest rates and increasing inflation.

However, SABMiller’s share of the Colombian alcohol market has increased steadily over the period and stood at 67% at the end of September, a gain ...More Info

Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB (Femsa) has taken market share from Cia de Bebidas das Americas (Ambev), the biggest beer company in Brazil, Ernesto Silva, chief executive officer of Brazilian and Argentine operations at Femsa, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg on November, 14.

In the two years since entering the country by purchasing Cervejarias Kaiser SA in January 2006, Femsa took 1.5 percentage points of the Brazilian beer market, according to the CEO.

“We are making them uncomfortable,” Silva said of AmBev. “Every day, we're achieving a higher speed of growth” in the country, he added.

A new Brazilian version of Sol and non-alcoholic beer, as well as best-selling ales Kaiser and Heineken, which Femsa brews and sells in Brazil for Amsterdam-based Heineken NV, helped boost earnings, Silva said.

For the first nine months of this year, Femsa's beer sales in Brazil climbed 9.5 percent to 4.35 billion pesos ($336 million) and volume rose 7.6 percent compared with the same period a year earlier.

The company is investing profit back into new and existing products and seeks to use its Coca-Cola distribution network to grow Kaiser's brands in Brazil, the unit chief said.

Luck has also played a part in growth. Femsa's sales of its ...More Info

Asia Pacific Breweries Ltd (APB) reported another year of strong revenue and PBIT growth for FY2008 on November, 14.

As compared to FY2007, Group PBIT before exceptional items grew 9% or S$22.6 million to S$277.7 million. Excluding translation differences, gestation losses, non-recurring items and an impairment charge of S$19.1 million to write-down APB's share of the Heineken-APB (China) Pte Ltd (HAPBC) investment in Kingway Brewery Holdings Limited (Kingway), PBIT grew organically by 25%, the Singapore-based brewer posted on its website.

Attributable net profit before exceptional items (APBE) at S$131.9 million showed a marginal fall of S$0.6 million or 0.5% versus last year. Excluding translation differences, gestation losses, non-recurring items and the impairment charge to write down APB's share of the HAPBC investment in Kingway, APBE increased organically by 26%.

Attributable Net Profit (ANP) slid 7% to $123.47 million as compared to $133 million the year before.

Group revenue for the year increased 12% to almost S$2 billion; a testimony to strong demand for the Group's beers in the region.

The earnings per share (before exceptional items) amounted to 51.1 cents compared with 51.3 cents in the previous year.

Commenting on the results, Mr Roland Pirmez, who assumed the position of Chief ...More Info

Asahi Breweries reported its October beer sales on its official site on November, 13.

The Japanese brewer said its domestic beer sales amounted to 122,947 kilolitres (down by 2.8% from October, 2007).

Total domestic beer sales (including the low-malt happoshu and no-malt new genre beer) were 182,646 kilolitres - 0.5% lower than in the same month last year.

January – October domestic beer sales fell by 4.5% to 1,306,363 kilolitres. Total beer sales of the given period constituted 1,862,937 kilolitres (- 3.2% yoy).

The company said among its brands the highest sales increase was registered by Jukusen: 68.9% increase over last year’s October sales. The Style Free brand also sold better than last year (1,020 thousand cases, + 25.9%). The rest of Asahi brands showed lower yoy sales, according to the brewer.

Belgian brewer Duvel Moortgat maintained its previous forecast of a successful third quarter 2008 on November, 13.

“Despite the financial crisis that is gradually turning into an economic crisis, we have realized an interesting growth during the third quarter. In view of the nice evolution in turnover during the first nine months of 2008, Duvel Moortgat will realize a turnover growth of at least 10% for the entire year and despite continuing pressure on the EBIT margin, an 8% EBITDA growth for the whole of 2008 should be feasible” the company posted.

Duvel said it had to buy raw materials at a high price during the beginning of the year, so it was not able to take advantage of the recent drop in raw material prices. This had pressured margins.

It added that both the hops and barley crops appeared good and it did not expect shortages on the hops market as occurred last year.

Duvel Moortgat is an independent brewery that has been producing specialty beers since 1871. The Group has become an international player with production units in Belgium, the United States and the Czech Republic and additionally, branches of its own in the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom and China. ...More Info

Germans are expected to drink 112 litres of beer a head in 2008, or the same amount as in 2007, the head of Bavaria's private brewers was quoted as saying by Forbes on November, 13.

The resilience of beer drinking in 2008 is surprising also because sales of beer declined by 2.7% in 2007. Germany is statistically the world's third-heaviest drinker of beer after the Czech Republic and Ireland, and the country has the largest number of breweries after the United States, with about 1,300.

According to the revised estimates of Strategie Grains, the EU’s barley output in 2008/2009 MY has amounted to 69.8 mln tonnes, which is 798 thousand tonnes more than the agency’s October data, APK – Inform reported on November, 14.

The main increase of production estimates has been made for Spain (+ 240 thousand tonnes), France (+180 thousand tonnes), and Lithuania (+180 thousand tonnes).

The experts have also raised the forecast of barley import by the EU nations in the current season by 428 thousand tonnes to 7.79 mln tonnes.

Particularly, Romania is expected to buy 80 thousand tonnes of barley more than it was forecasted earlier, and the Netherlands – by 100 thousand tonnes more. The UK is forecast to demonstrate the highest growth of barley purchases – 160 thousand tonnes more than previously prognosticated.

France’s barley production estimate has been raised since the last report by 0.2 mln tonnes to 12.2 mln tonnes, ONICG communicate on November, 13.

The domestic consumption of the cereal will be 2.5 mln tonnes, which is up 0.4 mln tonnes over last year.

France’s sales of barley to the EU countries are forecast to constitute 3.3 mln tonnes (+ 60,000 tonnes from last month).

Exports to third countries are expected to be about 1.7 mln tonnes of grain.

Ending stock is forecast to make 2 mln tonnes (more than it was estimated last month).

Exports of malt are estimated to remain unchanged from last year’s at 1.2 mln tonnes.

In 2007, the nation harvested 9.6 mln tonnes of barley.

Giuliano Dragone, Solange I. Mussatto, Joao B. Almeida e Silva

Abstract

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(4), 391–398, 2007 The present work evaluated the influence of all-malt wort original gravity on fermentative parameters and flavour-active compound formation during primary fermentation of high gravity brewing by a continuous process using a lager yeast immobilised on a natural carrier obtained from brewer’s spent grain (the main brewery by-product). The all-malt worts with original gravity (OG) ranging from 13.4 to 18.5°Plato were prepared by diluting a very-high-gravity wort (20°Plato) with sterile brewery water. The continuous assay was carried out in a bubble column bioreactor with a total working volume of 5.2 litres, at 15°C, using a constant gas flow rate of 250 mL/min (200 mL/min of CO2 and 50 mL/min of air) and a dilution rate of 0.04 h-1 (residence time of 25 h). The results indicated that as the wort OG was increased, the ethanol concentration of the outflowing beer increased. On the other hand, the continuous fermentation of the most concentrated worts (16.6 and 18.5°Plato) resulted in beers with unbalanced flavour profiles due to excessive ethyl acetate formation. The immobilised cell concentration appeared to be nearly independent from increasing wort OG. Key words: Beer, continuous fermentation, high gravity brewing, immobilised yeasts, spent grains, wort concentration. Load full article, 8 pages, 792Kb, PDF file