Sun Interbrew Finance, a special-purpose vehicle of Sun Interbrew Limited in Russia, said August 17 it had started floating three-year bonds worth RUR4 billion (about US$148 million) on the Moscow Inter-Bank Currency Exchange (MICEX), RIA Novosti released August 17.

"The placement of Sun Interbrew Finance Series 02 unconvertible interest-bearing documentary bearer bonds, with mandatory centralized custody, has started," the MICEX said in a press release.

Bonds, with a nominal cost of RUR1,000 (about US$37) per bond, will be floated via public subscription at 100% of par value. Raiffeisenbank Austria is the bonds' seller on the MICEX, the press release said.

The bonds will mature August 13, 2009, the MICEX said.

SUN Interbrew Limited was set up in 1999 after a merger of InBev brewery and the SUN group. In Russia, the company sells famous foreign beers such as Stella, Beck's and Staropramen, as well as popular Russian varieties like Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona and Tolstyak. It also sells Stella, Beck's, Chernigovskoye, Rogan and Taller in Ukraine.

Carlsberg's Finnish subsidiary Oy Sinebrychoff has just announced plans to restructure its business as well as invest in a new PET bottle production, Carlsberg announced August 16.

As part of the plan, bottling and warehousing facilities will be centralised in one of the company's two breweries which will also start utilizing a new automated high bay warehouse later this autumn, thus becoming the logistics centre of the company.

As a consequence Sinebrychoff has given notice that staff will be reduced with approximately 140 employees throughout the organisation.

"We are market leaders and doing well, but even so timely efficiency improvements are essential to keep this position in the future," says Mikael Aro, CEO of Sinebrychoff.

The new operational model is expected to be fully implemented in 2008, thus achieving annual cost savings of approximately DKK 90 million. The restructuring in Finland does not impact the latest guidance for 2006.

Investments in a new PET bottle production amount to DKK 140 million. It will be ready in 2008 and enable Sinebrychoff to introduce a number of new products and recyclable packages.

Greene King’s bid for Nottingham-based brewer Hardys & Hansons has been given near-unanimous approval from shareholders, The Publican acknowledged August 16.

Investors were deciding August 16 on whether to approve the Suffolk group’s £271million offer, tabled in May.

The bid was given the green light by 95 per cent of those shareholders voting, which means Greene King can now get on with the job of integrating both operations.

H&H has 268 managed and tenanted pubs and a brewery, which produces cask ales such as Olde Trip.

Beer enthusiasts fear Greene King will close the brewery, which employs in excess of 100 people, and move production to its Bury St Edmunds headquarters.

Scandinavia's second largest brewery business Danish based Royal Unibrew A/S is to build a new brewery in Latvia, in order to satisfy the growing demand for beer in the Baltic region, media released August 18.

The new brewery will be sited in Lielvarde and Royal Unibrew plans to spend EUR14 million for the construction of the new brewery.

Lacplesa Alus, Latvia’s forth largest brewery, is already owned by the Danish brewer. In addition, Royal’s Latvian assets include also the country’s largest soft drinks group Cido.


Conny Astrup-Larsen, Lacplesa Alus board chairwoman said: “Planning of the new brewery’s design and infrastructure is underway, but before construction works can begin in Lielvarde, these plans have to be approved by the respective state authorities.”

Royal Unibrew A/S is a listed, international business that produces, distributes, markets and sells beer, malt and soft drinks in 65 markets - primarily in Europe, America and Africa.

We comprise four breweries in Denmark, two in Lithuania, one brewery and one soft drinks business in Latvia as well as two breweries in Poland. In addition, we have sales companies and associates in a number of countries. We employ a total of some 2,200 people.

EU malt export restitutions for 147,000 tons were booked in July, a very low figure, which would not be sufficient to maintain the export flow of 2.2 million tons on a year basis. However, the figure must be misleading, as export business has been very good, not only for shipments in 2007, but also for the later months of this year, analyst commented August 01.

Malt markets are active, prices are firm and have probably not reached their highest levels yet. One obvious reason is the scarcity of good quality malting barley from this year's crop and the high and still rising barley price levels. Another reason is the precarious P/L situation of the whole malting industry, which is obliged to show profitable balance sheets after two years of horrendous losses.

The increase of the cost of energy and transport is a further factor. The dry and hot summer, which has damaged the barley fields, has also dried up river beds, so that the usually cheapest means of mass transport by barges has become extremely expensive on and around the Rhine, and even impossible on Elbe and Oder.

According to analysts report of August 01, the harvest campaign has started in Czech Republic, but early yield and quality reports from Bohemia are disappointing, high screenings and high protein are also reported. It is expected that Moravia’s crop will be better.

In Slovakia harvest is almost finished in the flat country along the Danube. Maltsters report fair yields, high screenings, and partly correct, but partly too low protein contents.

Like East Germany, the larger part of Poland is harvesting a very poor grain crop. Malting barley
shows all possible deficits, yields, screenings, high protein, but, of course, very low moisture contents. Silesia seems to be better off than the North.