E-Malt.com News article: 140

Heineken`s sale of two of its Spanish breweries and six brands to the Barcelona-based brewer Damm has been approved by the Spanish government.



The sold breweries are Madrid and Valencia, which have a total capacity of 2.2m hl. The sold brands are: Oro, Victoria, Estrella del Sur, Calatrava, Skol and Keler.



This sale is the precondition for the merging between El Aguila and Cruzcampo divisions. Heineken acquired Cruzcampo in 1999 for about EUR 650m from Diego and intended to merge it with El Aguila. In this case, Heineken Espana, the merged company, would have had a share of 40% of the Spanish beer market, which is too much for the Spanish competition authorities. That`s why Heineken proceed to the sale of the above-mentioned two breweries.



On the announcement of the sale, almost 3,200 Heineken`s workers went on strike because they feared the sale would lead to 300 employees losing their jobs. Damm has not specified the employment terms of the workers, which it takes as a part of the deal.

24 July, 2001