World: SABMiller Africa Executive’s view of M&A prospects

Opportunities for mergers have become far fewer but bigger, SABMiller Africa's managing director said in an interview on January 22 on the margins of the World Economic Forum, according to Wall Street Journal.

While Mark Bowman didn’t want to weigh in on speculation that SABMiller – the world’s second-largest brewer by sales – could be a takeover target for the world’s No. 1, Anheuser-Busch InBev, he noted the main issue in the beer industry now was “whether bigger players will start consuming each other.”

In Africa, where Mr. Bowman oversees SABMiller’s operations, acquisition prospects are slim, he said, but more options could be found in Asia.

For the first time at SAB, Africa contributed more to profit than Europe in the most recent financial year. The continent’s beer consumption is growing faster than that of any other region, but the drink remains a luxury for most Africans, Mr. Bowman said.

SABMiller owns a 20% stake in the African beer operations of France’s Castel Group, a closely held family company. Mr. Bowman said it was up to Castel to decide whether it wants to sell those operations, but he added he hoped SABMiller would be a “natural candidate” if the smaller company did decide to do so.

Cassava beer will be a major element in SABMiller’s 2014 Africa strategy, Mr. Bowman said. The firm plans to start production of beer from this crop in Zambia and also is looking into similar investment opportunities in Nigeria in the course of this year.
The ongoing conflict in South Sudan is affecting SABMiller’s operations in that young country’s capital, Juba, he said. A decision on how to respond to the major security threat will be made over the next two weeks, but the company wouldn’t want to fully “pull out,” he added.

“We were the first manufacturing investor in South Sudan,” Mr. Bowman said. “You don’t just leave, it’s a long game.”

The company owns a single brewery in Juba, a $40 million investment, and has in recent weeks evacuated all foreign employees. It is now running on “skeleton staff,” Mr. Bowman said.

24 January, 2014