Coopers Brewery has made the hard move in its takeover war with Lion Nathan. More precisely, Coopers, has matched Lion Nathan's $260a-share takeover offer, which according to analysts is very probable to ruin the Sydney brewer's hostile bid.

Coopers has written on November 7 to its 117 shareholders announcing a $260-a-share buyback. Coopers is also expected to announce ongoing capital-management initiatives in its target's statement, which is to be released within the next two weeks. In particular, this means that shareholders who wish to sell out in the future will have the opportunity to do so.

A share valuation would have also been sent to shareholders, together with notification of the company's annual meeting, to be held on November 29.

It is expected that Lion Nathan will not just observe this but will increase its $352 million bid.

However Coopers board is said to be confident that the buyback will satisfy the needs of the 5 to 10 per cent of shareholders interested in selling. "In reality, most shareholders have indicated they are not sellers. The next two to three years is where the growth is all going to come."

The plan of shutting down the Reims malting plant with a capacity of 92000 tonnes has been announced to the staff representatives at an extraordinary workers council meeting held on November 3 at the head office in Reims.

The Managing Director of Malteurop International, Daniel Huvet, and the Managing Director of Malteurop, Alain Le Floch, commented: “A large overcapacity in Europe, with recent developments in port areas, the construction of massive production capacities in Eastern Europe and in the Americas, a highly competitive market situation regretfully force us to consider the closure of our Reims cost-underperforming malting location. Subject to negotiations with the workers council representatives, the Reims maltings should cease operations in the first quarter 2006.”

In the U.S.A. three new malthouses have been built in Idaho and Montana, one of them, in good NAFTA style, owned by Modelo of Mexico. U.S. farmers, on the other hand, seem to have become increasingly disenchanted with the growing of barley.

A U.S. Grains Council malt conference in Portland is taking place these days. The meeting is a publicity effort for U.S. malt and barley exports, which are not only needed by the industries, but also to regain barley farmers' confidence.

Of the total crop of 16-17 Million tonnes about 3.0 to 3.5 Million tonnes may be selected for malting. Total needs of the rapidly growing malting industry, according to analysts estimations would be of 3.75 Million tonnes.

Quality of domestic malting barley is decidedly better than last year. Russian feed barley exports were 650,000 tonnes during July/September. Due to dry conditions Russia planted less winter wheat in the regions adjacent to the Black Sea, and the 2006 grain crop is expected smaller.

For a large country like Russia the impact of a partial crop failure will be much less dramatic than for neighbouring Ukraine.

Research at Oregon State University shows that beer contains a micronutrient that inhibits cancer-causing enzymes, United Press International (UPI) posted on November 7.

The compound, xanthohumol, was first isolated by Oregon State 10 years ago and an increasing number of laboratories across the world have begun studying the compound, said Fred Stevens, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry at Oregon State's College of Pharmacy.

The substance comes from the hops plant used to give beer its aroma and flavor, ABC News reported.

Most beers made today are low on hops, however, and so don't contain much xanthohumol. But beers such as porter, stout and ales have much higher levels of the compound. Mice studies show that the compound is metabolized quickly by the body, so it's hard to get a large amount in the body at one time, Stevens said.

"It clearly has some interesting chemo-preventive properties, and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption," he said.