Kirin Holdings Company, Limited announced on April, 27 that it has reached an agreement with Lion Nathan’s Independent Board Committee on key terms under which Kirin would acquire all of the issued shares in the Australian brewer that it does not already own.

The leading Japanese brewer, which acquired its first stake in Lion in 1998, will buy the remaining 287,786,220 shares (54%) in Lion Nathan for an offer consideration of A$12.22 per share.

The deal values Lion at A$6.5 billion (US$4.7 billion), a 47 percent premium over the Australian company’s closing price on April 22, when its shares were suspended before the announcement of the Kirin offer.

Lion Nathan’s chairman, Geoff Ricketts, said the board would unanimously recommend that shareholders accept the offer, provided no higher bid emerged. The deal is also subject to regulatory approval.

If the scheme is approved and implemented, Kirin will own all the issued 534,240,495 shares in Lion Nathan and the latter will be delisted from the Australian Securities Exchange and New Zealand Stock Exchange.

KH's President and CEO, Kazuyasu Kato, commented:

"The proposal to acquire the shares in Lion Nathan we do not already own is a logical next step in achieving our long term growth strategy of ...More Info

The Indian United Breweries Ltd. posted this week the audited results for the year ended March 31, 2008.

Industry Overview and Operations

The Indian beer industry is estimated to be around 155 million cases this year growing at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19% (3 Year CAGR). Exceptionally, in 2006-2007 the beer industry witnessed an unprecedented growth of 30%.

During the year under review, the industry grew 12% on account of some policy reversals and increase in end consumer prices.

The strong beer segment continues to dominate the market with a share of 70%. The growth of the industry is driven by a progressive economy with favourable demographics, higher disposable incomes, increasing exposure to Western lifestyles and higher consumer spends. Canned beer in social gatherings is becoming more popular. Also, liberalisation in some states, including deregulation and increased retailing opportunities through supermarkets, malls, etc. has increased access to beer and resulted in higher sales volumes.

United Breweries said it has managed to maintain both its dominant leadership position as well as profit margin, despite structural changes in North Indian markets, price control in key Southern markets of Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, challenges in the form of increased input cost and increasing competition ...More Info

UK beer sales dropped by 8.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same quarter in 2008, the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA) reported in its latest UK Quarterly Beer Barometer, published on April, 28.

According to the BBPA, this is by far the highest first quarter fall since 1997, and comes just days after the Chancellor announced yet another increase in Beer Tax in the Budget.

The UK Quarterly Beer Barometer shows that 1.7 million fewer pints were drunk every day from January to March, than in the same period in 2008. Compared with the first quarter ten years ago, 326 million fewer pints were sold across the country – a decline of 3.6 million pints a day.

Beer sales in pubs, bars and restaurants were down 6.3 per cent on the same quarter in 2008 – equating to 753,000 fewer pints every day. In total, 68 million fewer pints were sold in the on-trade during January to March 2009 compared with the same period in 2008.

It was a particularly bad quarter for sales in the off-trade (supermarkets and off licences), with sales down 11.0 per cent. This is the third consecutive quarter in which ...More Info

Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) is in exclusive talks with Anheuser-Busch InBev to acquire South Korea's Oriental Brewery (OB), Reuters cited on April, 28 a spokesman for KKR.

"We are in an exclusive engagement to negotiate with InBev over OB," Peter McKillop, director of global communications at KKR, confirmed by phone.

McKillop declined to provide further details on the pricing or timeline of the possible purchase.

An official at OB, South Korea's second-largest beer maker, said earlier that InBev had picked KKR as a preferred buyer, but declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Also on April 28, online news outlet MoneyToday cited an industry source as saying KKR had raised its bid for OB to more than $1.9 billion and accepted most of InBev's demands, trumping rival bids from Affinity Equity Partners and MBK Partners.

The Belgium-based brewing giant AB InBev is is looking to sell off non-core assets and repay debt.

Shares in Hite Brewery, South Korea's top brewer, rose 0.63 percent to 161,000 won, outperforming the wider market's .KS11 0.66 percent drop.

"The move is a positive for Hite's outlook, because the marketing competition could have been huge if Lotte had gotten ...More Info

Belgian speciality beer maker Duvel Moortgat posted its Q1 trading update on April, 27.

In the first quarter, sales were bad in January and very good in February; sales in March were on the same level as last year. However, all brands progressed globally, the company reported.

The brewer, known for its Duvel bottled beer and other specialty beers such as La Chouffe, said it expects malt prices to remain at a high level in 2009, since the prices were partly fixed in 2008.

In 2009, the purchase prices of hops will remain on a high level, although the prices will be lower than in 2008, the company estimates.

Nevertheless, Duvel Moortgat is expecting further growth in 2009.

On 17 March 2009, Duvel acquired the buildings of the Liefmans brewery in Oudenaarde to for €1,650,000, in implementation of the agreement concluded with the curators on 24 June 2008.

In the first quarter of 2009, the company purchased 44,170 own shares. The company holds a total portfolio of 125,333 own shares. These shares account for 2.34% of the capital.

The Duvel Moortgat group, founded in 1871, is an independent producer of authentic specialty beers and premium brands. Around the world, the group is considered to be the ...More Info

Canadian diversified agri-products company Viterra Inc. confirmed news reports on the ongoing negotiations for a proposed strategic deal with Australian agribusiness firm ABB Grain Ltd, RTTNews communicated on April, 28.

The proposed deal is reportedly valued at about A$1.58 billion. Viterra said that no agreement on a deal has been reached and that the current discussions are non-binding and no assurance can be given that any agreement on a transaction will be reached, though due diligence activities are going on.

In a statement, Adelaide, Australia-based ABB confirmed the receipt of conditional non-binding offer from Viterra to acquire all of the shares of ABB via a scheme of arrangement. The offer, within the reported range of $9.00 to $9.50 per ABB share, comprises a mix of cash, Viterra shares and franked dividends.

ABB noted that the proposed offer is subject to numerous conditions, and added that it would keep the market informed as required. ABB has appointed J.P. Morgan as financial adviser.

ABB is Australia's biggest barley marketer and maltster, as well as the nation's second largest wheat supplier, while Viterra boosts of the largest grain handling and agri-products retail system in Canada.

According to reports, Viterra and ABB are in talks to create an agricultural ...More Info

Barbara Jaskula, Koen Goiris, Gert De Rouck, Guido Aerts, Luc De Cooman

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 113(4), 381–390, 2007 A pleasant and consistent bitterness is an essential flavour attribute of beer. Hop-derived iso-alpha-acids are largely responsible for beer bitterness and accurate determination of these primary flavour compounds is very important in relation to quality control. The most widely used way to determine beer bitterness is based on spectrophotometry, measuring the absorbance of an iso-octane extract of acidified beer. However, this approach is far from specific as it measures all of the extracted compounds, including non-bittering principles. For that particular reason, High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) is increasingly applied for the quantitative determination of hop-derived iso-?-acids and, if present, reduced iso-alpha-acids. However, to obtain accurate data on beer bitterness profiles, both quantitative sample preparation and state-of-the-art HPLC are essential. In this paper, several extraction procedures based on solid phase extraction (SPE) and liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), respectively, were evaluated and an optimised extraction methodology using H3PO4 for sample acidification prior to extraction is presented. The proposed extraction/HPLC methodology allows for the quantitative recovery and analysis of hop-derived beer bitterness. Key words: alpha-Acids, beer bitterness, extraction, HPLC analysis, iso-?alpha-acids, recovery. Load full article, 10 pages, 630 Kb, PDF file