The Vietnamese government has approved a plan to privatise and list the Hanoi Beer Company, the country's second largest brewer, to raise money to increase production, a government report said on Wednesday, January 24, according to Reuters.

Less than 10 percent of the compnay known as Habeco would be sold to a foreign investor and shares would be listed on one of the country's two stock exchanges, said the report published on the government Web site (www.vietnam.gov.vn).

"The state will retain 76 percent of the company at the time of the initial public offering, but this stake will be reduced to no less than 51 percent later," it said.

Industry sources said Denmark's Carlsberg was interested in buying a stake in Habeco, whose best-selling brand is Bia Hanoi.

Habeco, which has a registered capital of 2 trillion dong ($124 million), signed a cooperation agreement with Carlsberg in 2005.

Vietnam's beer market, averaging 8 percent growth per year, has attracted the interest of a string of foreign brewers, including Anheuser-Busch , the owner of the Budweiser brand, and Belgium's Inbev .

State-run Saigon Beer, or Sabeco, the country's largest brewer, has also announced plans to partly privatise.

Beer production in Russia reached almost 100 million hectolitres in 2006, significantly beating the forecasts of the Russian Economic Development Ministry, Interfax communicated on January 22.

Brewing enterprises produced 99.9 million hl of beer, a 9.8% increase from 2005, Rosstat reported on Monday.

Meanwhile, according to a revised forecast of the Russian Economic Development Ministry for 2007 - 2010, the brewing industry would have been able to reach the figure only in 2009. The ministry predicted growth to 95 hl in 2006.

SABMiller plc, the London-based brewer, said on Friday, January 19, it will meet with South African regulators in the next month after it was found to have contravened the country's competition rules, an allegation it denies, according to Associated Press.

South Africa’s competition commission plans to refer the brewer, which has a 98 per cent share of the South African beer market and owns the Castle and Amstel brands, to the Competition Tribunal over alleged breaches of competition law.

SABMiller, which owns brands such as Miller Lite, Pilsner Urquell and Peroni, confirmed that South Africa's Competition Commission had found that it had violated "certain provisions" of the Competition Act.

"These provisions relate to prescribing selling prices to distributors, dividing markets through territory and customer allocations and discriminatory discounts," the company said.

SABMiller said it will meet with the Competition Commission in the "next month or so" in an effort to address the commission's concerns before the matter is referred to a competition tribunal for a public hearing. "We do not believe that we have engaged in any anticompetitive business practices," the brewer said.

SABMiller shares closed down 1.8% at R168 on Friday.

Interbrew Romania, the third largest player on the local beer market invested over 55 million euros (rate-card) last year to promote all the beer brands in its portfolio, Ziarul Financiar cited Mihai Ghyka, general manager of Interbrew on January 24.

The amount invested is 48% higher compared with 2005, when Interbrew had earmarked 37.1 million euros to promote its brands, according to AlfaCont.

"The domestic advertising market is growing by 25-30% in value, but this growth is mainly because of the rising prices of commercial airtime on television. The higher the price becomes, the more necessary it is for us to consider using other media. The printed media and the outdoor advertising become more interesting," states the general manager of Interbrew.

Utenos Alus brewery will invest LTL 20 mln into its development, Baltic Business News reported on January 19. After such an investment injection, the brewery will start the new season as the largest beer maker in the Baltic states.

In early 2006, experts predicted that the beer market would grow 3.5 pct. However, it actually grew 5.2 pct.

According to Imantas Cepulis, Svyturys-Utenos Alus production director, market growth relied on Lithuanians' love for beer, warm weather and imagination of beer makers, who constantly offer new products. Moreover, tourism bolstered market development as well.

World barley production for 2007-08 is forecast by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) to increase by 5% to 146 million metric tonnes, due mainly to an increase in seeded area and a return to normal yields in Australia and Canada. Total supply is expected to increase only slightly due to lower carry-in stocks, AAFC reported on January 12.

World barley trade is forecast to increase by 13% to 17.5 million metric tonnes. World carry-out stocks are expected to decrease by 4%. As a result, world prices are projected to decrease for feed barley and malting barley for 2007-2008.