Heineken, the Dutch brewer, is going to change the name of the Saint-Petersburg brewery, OOO “Bravo International”, into OOO “Pivovarnya Heineken”, with effect from the March 1st 2003. The brewery Bravo is the producer of Bochikariov, Ohota and Loewenbrau beer brands. Bravo output about 280 million litres of beer in 2002 and according to analysts held 5.2% stake of Russian beer market.

Heineken acquired the brewery a year ago in April 2002 from the Icelandic founders of the company. The deal of the price was not revealed, however in February 2002 representatives of Heineken announced that they appraise the brewery at US$ 400 million and that it will take a year to complete the deal. Hence the change of the name from ‘Bravo’ into ‘Pivovarnya Heineken’ means Heineken becomes the full owner of the company.

After renaming into Pivovarnya Heineken, the company will begin the production of a beer brand with the same name by the middle of 2003 year, according to Heineken. The company will also keep the production of the current beer brands.

18 February, 2003