SABMiller, the world's second-biggest brewer by volume, is unlikely to buy Foster's Group's beer assets amid low growth opportunities in Australia and abroad, Bloomberg cited analysts’ opinion on June, 2.

"It's very unlikely that SABMiller will get dragged into a bidding war" if another brewer was willing to pay about $10 billion for Foster's beer assets, said analysts including Trevor Stirling at Sanford C Bernstein in London.

Low growth in Australia, where Foster's has the biggest beer market share - 49 percent - and limited opportunities outside the country made a deal less likely, the Bernstein analysts wrote in a note. SABMiller owns the rights to brew Foster's beer in the US and India, while Heineken owns the European rights.

Foster's, Australia's biggest liquor maker, said last week that it will separate its wine business after a grape glut in the country and the US recession cut earnings.

Thailand’s leading brewer Thai Beverage (ThaiBev) expects to remain profitable this year despite the recent political unrest in Bangkok, Channel News Asia reported on June, 2.

The brewer claims its beer business depends on home consumption which remained unaffected by the riots.

Assuming that political unrest does not surface again, it expects to benefit from the upcoming World Cup season, a company spokesperson is quoted as saying.

The company said beer consumption during this period could increase by up to 30 per cent over normal consumption levels.

Foster’s beer division is of interest to China’s Tsingtao Brewery whereas Bright Foods, a Chinese food and beverage conglomerate, is taking a look at the Australian company’s wine and beer assets, Mergermarket cited companies sources on June, 3.

Foster's Group’s beer division could attract takeover bids of up to $10 billion from suitors, it has been reported.

Bright Food is currently studying both wine and beer assets but has not decided to buy either yet, a company source is quoted as saying.

Tsingtao Brewery, one of the biggest players in China, is interested in hearing more about the beer unit of Foster’s, said a company source. The brewer, 20% held by Asahi Breweries, has not seriously considered whether or not it would bid, he added. No advisors have pitched Tsingtao so far.

However, a China-based FMCG analyst was sceptical about whether Tsingtao could generate synergies via an acquisition of an overseas counterpart. Tsingtao, known for its intention to expand its international market share, might find it difficult to manage an Australian company due to the cultural differences.

SABMiller, the UK-listed world’s No. 2 brewer, is likely to take a look at Foster’s beer business, said an industry insider, but it remains unclear ...More Info

US brewers produced a total of 57.1 bln barrels in January – April 2010, The Beer Institute communicates.

The Beer Institute’s unofficial national brewer production estimate indicates a decrease of 5.0% in taxable removals of 15,100,000 barrels in April 2010 compared to 15,895,000 barrels in April 2009. Domestic taxable removals (also known as Tax Paid Removals) measure the amount of beer shipped from domestic brewers to distributors within the U.S. market

The United States Department of Commerce reports total imports of malt beverages from all countries for the month of March 2010 decreased 0.5% to 2,488,235 compared to March 2009 total barrels of 2,501,670.

The United States Department of Commerce reports total commercial exports of malt beverages to all countries for the month of February 2010 at 169,395 barrels compared to February 2010 commercial exports of 197,693 barrels.

Romania’s Ursus Breweries said its share of the nation’s beer market reached 32% last year, up 4% versus 2008, Ziarul Finaciar reported on June, 2.

The major contribution to the share gain was seen from the Timisoreana beer brand, Ursus said.

The company’s sales, however, dropped by 13% last year, whereas the total market shrunk by more than 15%.

SABMiller’s subsidiary claims it did not cut its promotion expenses last year.

“Romania’s beer market will not fall so much this year as it did in 2009, but it is difficult to make any precise estimates for the next six-eight months,” the company added.

A year after Molson Coors announced an historic tie-up with Cobra Beer –one of the fastest growing beer brands in the UK – the first bottles to be produced at the mammoth Burton brewery rolled off the production line on June, 2, Burton Mail reported on June, 3.

Cobra’s founder, Lord Bilimoria, said he was ‘proud’ to see the beer he launched 20 years ago brewed in Burton, and said the production of an Indian beer meant the town had ‘come full circle’ as it was the home of India Pale Ale, once shipped out to quench the thirst of expats in India in the days of the British Raj.

Adrian Davey, who moved from his job at the head of Molson Coors’ off-trade division to become the new managing director of Cobra, said the beer’s arrival in town was a boost to Burton’s status as a global brewing centre.

He said: “There’s been an immense amount of work over the past year, taking Cobra from a beer produced in a variety of locations across Europe to one brewed, kegged and packaged in one place.

“Our partnership has had a great first year as we’ve brought the best of both businesses together. It’s excellent ...More Info

Ukrainian analysts expect the nation’s barley production to total 11 – 11.5 mln tonnes in 2010, RBC-Ukraine communicated on June, 3.

The Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine said the country’s barley exports in the current 2009/10 marketing year have totalled 5.8 mln tonnes.

C. E. Wallin, M. B. DiPietro, R. W. Schwarz and C. W. Bamforth

J. Inst. Brew. 116(1), 78–80, 2010
ABSTRACT
Three methods for measuring foam stability were assessed using nine different beers. The methods were the NIBEM instrument of Haffmans, the device marketed by Steinfurth and the manual procedure developed by Constant. There were reasonable-togood correlations when the foam stability of all the beers, as determined by the individual methods, were compared one with another. However when individual beers were studied, it appeared that different techniques rank them in somewhat different sequences. All of the methods demonstrated the superior foam stability of examined ales over lagers, however there were some differences in ranking of beer foam quality, in particular with the beers bittered with reduced iso-a-acids, which performed better when assessed by methods that quantified the foam itself, rather than drainage. Key words: comparison, foam, instrument, manual method, ranking. Load full article, 3 pages, 236 kb , PDF file