Ethiopia: BGI makes first payment for stake acquired in Raya Brewery

BGI Ethiopia paid an initial 45 million birr for the shares it acquired in Raya Brewery, Addis Fortune reported on December, 7.

BGI has agreed to pay 75 million birr for a 30% share of the brewery.

The partnership between BGI Ethiopia, an established beer producer in the country, and the new brewery is expected to make the two companies highly competitive on the national market.

The second general assembly of the company is believed to have ratified new shareholders including BGI Ethiopia and the largest individual shareholder of the company to date Ato Dawit G/Egzihaber who bought an additional 42.5 million birr worth of shares.

Raya Brewery is set to secure a loan for the construction of its plant estimated to cost 750 million birr. The brewery is also in the process of preparing an international invitation for the engineering, procurement and construction of the plant.

It is to be remembered that an arrangement for the engineering procurement and construction made with a German brewery equipment company, Brewtech GmbH, fell through.

Raya plans to be operational within 18 months after commencing construction of its plant.

A potential challenge that Raya is already anticipating is a shortage of bottles in the local market according to Lemma. The factory is ready to import the bottles from Egypt should a shortage occur he explained.

Raya Brewery was formed in March 2010 by 58 shareholders with a capital of 2.36 million birr. It now has 2,022 shareholders. The company plans to produce draft and bottled beers and to diversify to premium brand beer eventually.

07 December, 2011