Anheuser-Busch InBev announced on January, 9 that it has completed the pricing of USD 5,000,000,000 notes.

According to the brewer’s website, the issue consist of USD 1,250,000,000 notes due 2014, USD 2,500,000,000 notes due 2019 and USD 1,250,000,000 notes due 2039.

The notes will bear interest at an annual rate of 7,20% for the 5 year notes, 7,75% for the 10 year notes and 8,20% for the 30 year notes, respectively.

The notes will be issued by Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Anheuser- Busch InBev, and will be unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by its parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV/SA, which is currently rated Baa2 (Moody’s) and BBB+ (Standard and Poor’s). Certain subsidiaries of Anheuser-Busch InBev NV/SA will also provide guarantees in respect of the notes.

The notes are being offered and sold to institutional investors in the US pursuant to Rule 144A and outside the US pursuant to Regulation S under the US Securities Act 1933, as amended. The net proceeds from the sale of the notes will be used to repay a portion of the outstanding indebtedness incurred for the purpose of financing the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch Companies Inc, the brewer reported.

Felipe Dutra, CFO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said: “We are ...More Info

Asahi Breweries Ltd., Japan’s top-selling beermaker, said sales by volume of beer and beer-like beverages will probably increase 0.8 percent this year, Bloomberg reported on January, 9.

“Japan’s beer market is very severe,” President Hitoshi Ogita said. “Total sales for beermakers will drop, but we want to grow,” he added, without providing details of the company’s strategy.

Asahi, biggest Japanese beverage maker Kirin Holdings Co. and closely held Suntory Ltd. face a declining birthrate that’s reducing the number of potential customers in Japan, which has fallen into its first recession since 2001. The beverage makers are seeking expansion overseas, with Asahi agreeing to pay 550 million pounds ($839 million) for Cadbury Plc’s Australian drinks division, and Suntory saying it plans to spend 200 billion yen ($2.2 billion) on acquisitions in Asia and Oceania.

According to Tomonobu Tsunoyama, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Securities Co., it’s very hard to read the market this year. “Material costs will increase and I’m interested in how much beer companies can save in marketing and advertising costs. The top beer companies have said they can’t raise prices as consumers become more sensitive to cost increases,” Tsunoyama said.

Beer sales for Asahi will probably increase to 183 million cases this ...More Info

Heineken was cut to neutral from outperform by Credit Suisse, as the broker sees mid-single-digit earnings per share growth with no improvement in multiple valuation, the Market Watch reported on January, 9.

According to Cercle Finance, Credit Suisse noted that it does not condemn the brewer’s long-term strategy and highly estimated the policy of the company’s management.

Credit Suisse sees superior opportunities in SABMiller, Diageo, and Anheuser-Busch InBev, it is reported.

The broker said structurally SABMiller and Diageo are better armed to resist the possibly prolonged economic recession both in developed and developing markets.

On the other hand, analysts believe that a possible tie up between Heineken and Diageo would create the world’s most powerful producer of alcoholic drinks.

MillerCoors recently began cutting back production at its Golden brewery as the joint venture redistributes beer-making operations among its eight breweries across the nation, the Rocky Mountain News posted on January, 7.

The output drop comes as MillerCoors - a joint venture of Molson Coors and SABMiller - began producing Coors Light at breweries beyond the two Coors breweries in Golden and Virginia.

The move is intended to reduce transportation and distribution costs. Miller brought six breweries to the joint venture.

MillerCoors spokesman Julian Green said the production cutback in Golden - affecting Coors Light - wouldn't result in job losses. "We're not going to see any layoffs as a result of the drop in production," said Green.

He noted that the Golden brewery is expected to begin producing Miller brands later this year, a move that will boost output.

The Golden brewery is the world's largest, with an annual capacity of 20 million barrels. Green declined to specify the size of the production drop.

Global beverages company Foster's Group Ltd's near term earnings will be well supported by the strong performance of its beer division, the Age cited Goldman Sachs JBWere analysts on January, 9.

Beer sales typically thrive during economic downturns. They are considered recession-resistant.

Looking over the market, and the economy broadly, the J B Were Goldman Sachs analysts said they believed sale or demerger of Foster's wine division was not likely following the group's internal review of that division.

"This would suggest that FGL's near term rating should be largely a function of its earnings outlook rather than extraneous factors.

"Our base case scenario is that near term earnings will be well supported by the strong performance from the Australian beer market and the currency tailwinds for US wine earnings.

"On a sum of the parts analysis, we believe fair value lies in the $5.00 to $5.50 range and retain our HOLD recommendation."

"The boost to earnings over the past three to five years from positive product mix shift is also likely to diminish as the economy slows," the analysts said in their report.

Although tighter credit conditions are starting to choke domestic economic activity, Kazakhstan’s beer sector is still continuing to perform well, companiesandmarkets.com posted in its Kazakhstan Food and Drink Report Q1 2009 on January, 8.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink in Kazakhstan, with the domestic market experiencing booming growth in recent years. One company that has invested heavily in the Kazakhstani beer sector is Efes Breweries International (EBI), and in October 2008 the brewer reported that its Kazakhstan volume sales increased by 9% from the same period the year before, rising to 1.2 mln hectolitres.

However, the company experienced a 55% drop in net profit for the first six months of the year, from US$17.4mn to US$7.8mn, which it attributed to extra capital expenditure to finance its expansions in Kazakhstan, as well as on higher commodity prices.

EBI operates in the country through its wholly owned subsidiary Efes Karaganda Brewery JSC, which is the number-two beer producer in Kazakhstan, operating two plants in Karaganda and Almaty, with a market share of 21%.

However, EBI is not alone in recognising the potential of the Kazakhstani beer sector, as other key players have also been increasing their investments, such as the Carlsberg-controlled Baltic Beverages Holding ...More Info

The Canadian Wheat Board announced on January, 7 it was on track for record malting barley sales this crop year, despite a challenging world market environment and record-large global crop production.

In its annual Grain Marketing Report, mailed to Prairie farmers this week, the CWB has announced an export target for 2008-09 of 1.6 mln tonnes of barley, with at least 1.4 MT expected to consist of malting barley. The previous record for bulk malting barley exports was 1.3 MT in 1997-98.

"Prices remain relatively high from a historical perspective, although they have dropped from the record highs we saw last year," Chief Operating Officer Ward Weisensel says in the Grain Marketing Report. "The CWB has taken advantage of increased rail and lake freight capacity to move increased volumes of this year's large Prairie crop during the busy post-harvest period."

Weisensel noted there are plenty of challenges in these times of global economic turmoil. He said that, in addition to a large worldwide crop, overall uncertainty, extreme market price volatility, tight credit and currency fluctuations are major factors. "Grain buyers are taking a cautious approach to purchases in the face of economic uncertainty."

The CWB projects farmers in Saskatchewan will receive about C$253 per ...More Info

EU’s feed barley market is still very calm, La Depeche communicated on January, 9.

Export sales of feed barley occur more often than domestic sales, experts inform.

The malting barley market sees no purchasers both for the old and new crop. No deals have been registered so far, and the market level is hard to define in the context of bulling the feed grains.

The drought in the south-east and some regions of Central Anatolia has negatively affected barley yields in Turkey. As a result, USDA has reduced its estimate for the Turkish barley production by 6.7% to 5.6 mln tonnes in 2008/2009 MY, which is 6.7% lower than the crop harvested in the previous season, Agro Perspectiva reported on January, 8.

The forecast for barley import was increased by 40% to 350 thousand tonnes (twice as much as in 2007/2008).

As the previous marketing year also turned out to be unsuccessful for the Central Anatolian crop, the nation’s barley stock was very small at the beginning of the current season. At the moment, the Turkish Grain Board has in stocks only 30 thousand tonnes of barley. In June-December 2008, the nation imported 50 thousand tonnes of barley.

In total, the Turkish Grain Board imported 64.2 thousand tonnes of barley ($20.2 mln) in 2008. The imports by private companies amounted 170 thousand tonnes with the highest import rates registered in the first half of the year.

Turkey did not export barley last year.

H.H. Wijngaard, S. Renzetti and E.K. Arendt

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 113(1), 34–41, 2007 The structures of buckwheat and barley were observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Confocal Scanning Laser Microscopy (CSLM) throughout the malting process. SEM and CSLM have different merits when studying grains and seeds. SEM can be used to study the detailed structure (high magnifications can be achieved) and CSLM to study the overall change in structure during processing. SEM proved that buckwheat starch is degraded by both pitting and surface erosion. A concentric sphere structure was visible when buckwheat starch granules were partly broken down. With CSLM, the organization of protein and starch of buckwheat and barley could be examined independently in projections and images visualizing the 3D structure. CSLM proved that buckwheat starch is surrounded by a protein matrix. Buckwheat protein was structured and surrounded starch granules, while barley protein was present in an amorphous mass through the endosperm. The differences in overall structure between unmalted and malted seeds were evident, as the starch and protein in both the barley and buckwheat were degraded. CSLM may be used in the future to couple processing characteristics to the structure of grains and seeds. Key words: Barley, buckwheat, confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM), malting, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) Load full article, 8 pages, 11076 Kb, PDF file