Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer, announced on November, 24 it will raise as much as 6.36 billion euros ($8.05 billion) in a rights offering to help repay some of the debt which funded the transaction that formed the company.

According to the company, as many as 986.1 million new shares will be offered to investors at 6.45 euros apiece. That’s 69 percent less than Nov.21 closing price of 20.60 euros.

The issue of the new shares will run from Nov. 25 until Dec. 9, 2008.

ABInbev's controlling shareholders will subscribe to 2.8 billion euros in new funds.

The company also said that an accelerated placement of up to some 1.2 billion of ex-rights ABInbev shares was being launched on November, 24 on behalf of the Belgian shareholders and Sebastien holdings.

The brewer, which sealed its takeover last week, had planned to carry out the rights issue last month, but postponed it due to volatile financial markets.

BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank and J.P. Morgan are acting as Joint Global Coordinators and Joint Bookrunners of the offering.

Indian entrepreneur Karan Bilimoria is putting his Cobra beer business up for sale for around 200 million pounds ($296.8 million), Reuters reported on November, 23.

According to sources close to the situation, Bilimoria has appointed investment bank Rothschild to find a new investor in the beer company he founded 18 years ago after the failure of talks earlier this year to sell a stake to the world's biggest alcoholic drinks group Diageo Plc.

"Cobra beer is looking at a strategic partnership or a sale in order to achieve the full potential of the business," the beer company said in a statement.

Rothschild is expected to contact potential buyers this week including brewers with a big presence in the UK such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, Heineken, Carlsberg and Molson Coors, while India's United Breweries and private equity groups will also be approached, the sources said.

Besides, it was reported that Cobra Beer is also investing in expanding its beer business in India as it is looking to produce 10 million cases by 2010-11.

Bilimoria said, "In India, Cobra Beer achieved the annualized production of around 3.5 million cases in July this year and by July next year, it will be around five million cases and by ...More Info

China’s Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. was rated at "buy ?B" by Essence Securities, Xinhua reported on November, 25.

The brewer’s target price was set at 21.78 yuan for 12 months.

Tsingtao Brewery is expected to have share earnings of 0.55 yuan, 0.79 yuan, and 0.99 yuan per share, in 2008, 2009, and 2010, respectively.

According to experts, the purchase price of import Australia wheat is likely to decrease by 25 percent in 2009. Consequently, the company's cost pressure will be relieved and its gross profit rate is predicated to rebound from two consecutive years of decline.

Currently, the company spends almost all of its marketing fees on the main "Tsingtao" brands, which will account for more than 50 percent in total sales volume in coming two to three years, predicated Essence Securities.

Anheuser-Busch InBev's Belgian family investors completed their disposal of 1.2 billion euros ($1.55 billion) of shares, pricing them at a 5-year low for a quick sale as the brewer's rights offering proceeds, Bloomberg reported on November, 25.

The offering was for 10 euros a share, according to e-mails to clients from the underwriters. BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co. placed stock with institutions after an accelerated sale that started on November, 24.

The shares rose 16 percent on November, 25, the most ever, after closing the day before at their lowest since 2003.

According to Dresdner Kleinwort analysts, the Belgians' sale “removes most of the overhang” that had weighed on the shares. Still, “the deal is considerably more dilutive than we had anticipated, they said of the announced rights offering.

Shares in the company, known as InBev before last week, rose every year between 2004 and 2007 as the Brazilian executives, led by Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito, focused on reducing costs. Those gains were wiped out this year as Brito bid for the former Anheuser-Busch Cos. to reach half the U.S. beer market. The stock is down 66 percent in 2008, compared with a 29 percent decline ...More Info

The Danish-Russian Baltika Breweries increased its beer sales in the countries of the Asian-Pacific region more than four times during the first nine months of this year, Pivnoe-Delo cited the company’s press release on November, 24.

The brewer said its sales in Japan, China, Mongolia, Australia, South Korea, and New Zealand amounted to 2.7 mln litres over the reporting period.

With more than 1 mln litres of Baltika beer sold in January – September (three times as much as during the same period in 2007), China is the company’s main market in the region. Baltika #7 is the brewer’s best-selling brand with a 36 percent share in the total export volume. Baltika Breweries started to export its production to China in 2004.

In Australia, where Baltika beers appeared in the same year, it was Baltika #3 that enjoyed most popularity (50 percent of the total sales volume). Over the first nine months of 2008, the company’s sales in Australia grew more than two times.

Later this month Baltika is to present its production at an exposition of Russian enterprises in India.

Greencore Group Plc, a leading international food and malt producer, issued on November, 25 its preliminary statement of results for the year ended September 26, 2008.

The Group posted revenue of €1,308.1 mln (+ 3% over the revenue of FY 2007, + 13% constant currency growth).

Operating profit decreased by 5% to €77.3 mln (+ 6% constant currency growth).

Continued excellent malt performance accounted for 60% of divisional sales. The malt business enjoyed a very good year, helping the ingredients business to a 17pc hike in profits to €31 mln.

Distilling demand for malt was fuelled by global consumption of whisky (2007: +7%). Cost of new capacity (c. e750/tonne) and availability of malt contractors is still significant barriers to entry, especially in Western Europe. New projects are being put on hold, reflecting economic uncertainty, Greencore said.

With multi-year agreements covering c. 50% of contracts, the company hopes to eliminate barley risk in most cases.

Greencore maintained its final dividend in the face of a 51pc slide in earnings from 51.8 cent to 26.6 cent a share.

The final payout of 5.3 cent gives a total for the year of 13.51 cent, almost 2pc up on a 2007 dividend struck at 13.26 cent a share.

Both the feed and malting barley markets of the US have been rather quiet the last two weeks, Farm & Ranch Guide communicated on November, 23.

According to experts, the trade has a pretty good picture of the 2008 crop and there hasn't been an increase in demand for either class.

“The feed barley market has pretty much been hanging right in there, despite the fact that the corn market has been bouncing around a little,” said Larry Raap, grain merchandiser for Sun Prairie Grains in Minot, N.D. “I would guess prices are in the $2.75 to $2.90 range right now.”

At the present time there is little export news that would lend support to feed barley prices, according to Raap, and he doesn't foresee any big export agreements on the horizon.

“I don't see any big upward pressure in the feed barley market unless corn takes off and goes wild, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen either,” he said.

The latest USDA Feed Outlook, released by the Economic Research Service (ERS) on Nov. 13, predicted that world barley trade during the period of October 2008 through September 2009, will grow to 19.3 million tons, which will be the largest barley trade ...More Info

UK’s Malting Barley Committee published its Malting Barley Brewing and Distilling Approved List: Harvest 2009 on November, 17.

At the Committee’s Autumn 2008 meeting the following varieties were approved for brewing use in 2009:

Winter varieties: Pearl – Full Approval Flagon – Full Approval Cassata – Full Approval Wintmalt – Provisional Approval 1

Spring varieties: Optic – Full Approval Cocktail – Full Approval NFC Tipple – Full Approval Westminster – Full Approval Quench – Provisional Approval 2.

None winter barley varieties were approved for distilling use in 2009. As for the spring varieties, the list is as follows:

Optic – Full Approval Cocktail – Full Approval Decanter – Full Approval Oxbridge – Full Approval Appaloosa – Full Approval Publican – Full Approval Tartan – Provisional Approval 1 Belgravia – Provisional Approval 1.

Canadian Wheat Board released its November Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2008-09 crop year on November, 20.

According to CWB, feed barley and designated barley are both down C$3: the former to C$190 from C$193 in the October PRO, the latter – to C$324 for two-row varieties and to C$304 for six-row varieties.

PRO Commentary

Global feed barley prices continued to decline during the past month as large Black Sea and European barley crops are being aggressively marketed during the post-harvest period. Despite the drop in ocean freight rates, North American barley values are still not competitive with Black Sea or European prices. As well, rains in the Middle East are expected to temper import demand. Dryness in eastern Australia has lowered expectations for the Southern Hemisphere crop, which has given limited support to the market, the CWB said.

International prices for malting barley continued to move lower over the past month, more than offsetting the positive impact of the weaker Canadian dollar and resulting in a slight decline in the PRO values. Prices have been supported somewhat by deterioration of the Australian crop and increased concerns about crop quality. European malting barley values have stabilized, due to earlier Danish sales that cannot ...More Info

ABB Grain Ltd announced on its official website on November, 25 it had recorded an AU$48.8 million full-year net profit after tax (NPAT) with strong contributions from all business sectors.

The company’s 2007 full-year net profit was AU$7.3 million.

Australia’s leading agricultural business also announced it would pay a final dividend of 14 cents per share to shareholders on 7 January 2009, with a record date of 17 December 2008. This brings the total dividends for the year to 21 cents per share.

ABB’s existing dividend reinvestment plan will continue to apply with a 2.5% discount to the weighted average price of ABB shares sold on the ASX in the five business days immediately before, including, and after the record date, it was posted.

ABB Grain managing director, Michael Iwaniw, said the 2008 full-year result was at the upper end of a revised profit guidance issued to the market on October 17. That guidance forecast an NPAT of between AU$47 mln and AU$49 mln.

“This result further supports the ABB strategy of diversification, growth and development of an integrated business model,” he said.

“The full-year profit is a pleasing result, delivered despite a below average harvest in 2007.”

ABB’s grain marketing division lifted its earnings before interest ...More Info

Chris D. Powell and Andrew N. Diacetis

Abstract

ABSTRACT J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 67–74, 2007 Two brewing yeast strains, one employed for the production of an ale type product and the other used solely for bottle conditioning, were serially repitched over a period of one year. Subsequently each yeast culture was compared to the original stocks for a variety of phenotypic and genotypic characteristics. Fermentation performance was assessed in terms of flocculation capacity and the time required to achieve attenuation in 150 barrel fermentation vessels, while the propensity for the population to accumulate variants was assessed by analysing giant colony morphology. Changes to the genome were monitored by DNA fingerprinting of each yeast culture using RAPD-PCR and RFLP. Although some colony morphology variation was observed between fresh and old ale yeast cultures, there were no detectable genetic changes or alterations in fermentation characteristics to either yeast strain over the course of serial repitching. It is suggested that although some brewing yeast strains are susceptible to genetic drift, others are more resilient and can remain stable over extended periods of time. The propensity to produce variants may therefore play a significant role in determining the number of times a strain may be serially repitched, or its suitability for beer fermentations. Key words: cropping, flocculation, genetic drift, RAPD, RFLP, Saccharomyces. Load full article, 5 pages, 5952Kb, PDF file