Carlsberg was understood to be looking to secure a further £200 million that could lead to the opening of takeover talks with target Scottish & Newcastle, Edinburgh Evening News reported January 16.

The Danish brewer and its consortium partner Heineken had a 780p a share proposal – valuing the city-based firm at £7.6 billion – immediately rebuffed last week.

But S&N said that it would engage with the firm if an offer of 800p a share – or around £7.8bn – is received.

The consortium has been given a deadline of Monday for a formal bid to be tabled or it must walk away.

One key S&N institutional shareholder said: "I don't think it would take much more on the table to persuade the majority of shareholders to accept a cash offer."

S&N has demanded that Carlsberg allow it to publish more information about profits, sales and capital spending at Baltic Beverages Holding, a joint venture between the two firms, to let shareholders see the company's value.

But Carlsberg has so far not responded to the pleas.

Heineken N.V. announced the acquisition of the Tango Brewery in Algiers, Algeria, in a press release, January 14.

Heineken acquires Tango sarl from the Group Mehri. The acquisition price has not been disclosed. The transaction has been funded from existing cash resources and will be earnings enhancing in 2008 and value enhancing in 2012.

The company employs 350 staff and operates a modern brewing facility in Rouiba, 30 km from Algiers, the capital of Algeria. The brewery has been operational since 2001 and has a production capacity of 750,000 hectolitres. The brand portfolio consists of the leading national mainstream beer brand Tango, and two brands in the economy segment, Samba and Fiesta. The combined volume of the acquired brands and Heineken totals 140,000 hectolitres. The Heineken brand, currently imported, will be brewed in Algeria from 2008.

Tom de Man, Regional President Africa and the Middle East, Heineken N.V., commented: “With this acquisition, Heineken obtains the number one mainstream beer brand, Tango and becomes the strong number two player in the fast growing and profitable Algerian beer market. Given its strong brand image, we expect the Heineken brand to perform strongly in the market’s large premium segment.”

The current growth of the Algerian beer market ...More Info

U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch declined to say whether it plans to bid for a minority stake in Baltic Beverages Holdings (BBH), a brewer jointly owned by Britain's Scottish and Newcastle PLC and Denmark's Carlsberg A/S, Reuters reported January 14.

According to a report in Britain's Sunday Telegraph, Anheuser-Busch, with help from private equity firms Blackstone and TPG, approached Scottish & Newcastle with an offer to join in a 4.6 billion pound ($9 billion) bid by S&N to take full control of BBH, which consists of 19 breweries in the Baltic countries, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It is the largest brewer in that area.

S&N's plan would be to finance the move by offering a 25 percent stake to a minority partner, the Telegraph said.

"It is our policy to not confirm, deny or speculate on rumors of potential investments, acquisitions, mergers, new business partnerships or other transactions," said Anheuser Chief Financial Officer W. Randolph Baker in an e-mailed statement.

A 25 percent stake would cost Anheuser-Busch $2.25 billion, noted Wachovia analyst Jonathan Feeney, who said: "It would certainly be Anheuser's style to consider a 25 percent equity stake -- which would allow them to gain leverage in a key long-term growth market and bolster ...More Info

According to experts, Czech beer prices a going to increase by 25% this year, mainly due to the rising cost of raw materials: hops and malt, Russian Beer Union reported January 11.

Jan Vesela, Director of Czech Beer Union is expecting a price rise till 11 krons for the most popular beer (the current price is 8.70 krons). If in 2007 Czech brewers have been able to keep the price increase at 5-6%, this year the prices will grow much faster, The Czech Walker reported.

Belarus brewers produced 3.29 hl of beer in January-November 2007, 8.1% more than in the same period of previous year, Russian Beer Union reported January 11.

The raise was caused by the growing consumption in the country and the development of production capacities. The main market actors were Krinitza brewery with 40.9%, Syabar with 15.4%, Olivaria with 12.6%, Lidskoe Pivo with 12.2%, Brestskoe Pivo – 8.5% and Rechitza Pivo – 8.1%.

Anheuser-Busch is set to increase the price of its flagship Budweiser beer, in India, to cut down losses, TNN reported January 16. Sources said the company's local joint venture-Crown Beers-is poised to hike the price of the 650ml bottle to Rs 75 from the existing Rs 68 in Mumbai.

The JV, in which Anheuser-Busch and the local partners hold equal stake, will raise prices in most of its existing markets, like Goa and Karnataka, barring Hyderabad where it is brewed. The increase in state levies by the Andhra Pradesh government has raised the price of Budweiser to Rs 80 from around Rs 68 per bottle in Hyderabad. Hence, a further hike in Hyderabad might not be feasible at the moment, sources added. It is believed that the price of Budweiser in Goa could move up to Rs 45 from Rs 40 currently.

Sources said the hike could be in the Rs 5-7 price band in different markets. Crown Beer did not respond to an ET query at the time of going to press.

The move ends Budweiser's shortlived, aggressive pricing strategy, which saw it make a debut almost on a par or slightly above mainstream premium brands like Kingfisher and Foster's. It is ...More Info

Canadian maltsters have lost business to competitors because the Canadian Wheat Board has refused to sell new-crop malting barley due to an impasse over a new pricing program, an industry spokesman said, according to Reuters, January 15.

The farmer-run CWB, which has a monopoly on sales of the crop from Western Canada, will not forward-sell barley to maltsters beyond July 31, 2008 unless maltsters agree to a program which they have flatly rejected, said Phil de Kemp, president of the Malting Industry Association of Canada.

"We are paying a price for that, and quite frankly so are farmers, because we've lost those opportunities," said de Kemp, declining to comment on what volume of sales had been lost, citing commercial reasons.

A worldwide hops shortage and malting barley price increases have forced many breweries in US to raise their prices, The Daily Tar Hill published January 15.

The hops crop was directly affected by bad weather in Europe, extreme heat in the Pacific Northwest and a drought in Australia, leading to a lower yield than past harvests.

The barley price increase is more modest, but it still can affect the price of your beer.

One of the causes of the price increase is a trend among Midwestern American farmers to replace barley with more profitable biofuels such as ethanol, said Carl Griffey, professor of crop and soil environmental science at Virginia Tech.

Adding to problems with harvests, the methods breweries use to contract for ingredients have also affected hops and barley supplies.

Beer ingredients used to be purchased on a forward contract, said Stephen Kenny, a research scientist at Washington State University.

Under this system, breweries would tell suppliers how much of a certain ingredient, such as hops, they would need for future years, allowing the supply and price to be set ahead of time.

Recently, instead of paying a set price for a number of years, brewers took advantage of lower prices.

Now farmers are taking steps to ...More Info

L. Hřivna - Mendel University of Agriculture and Forestry in Brno, Czech Republic

Abstract
In small-plot field trials conducted in 2000–2002 we studied the effect of fungicides on the yield and selected technological parameters of grain of malt barley and on malt. For the treatment we used Cerelux (active ingredients: fenpropimorph, flusilazole), Amistar (azoxystrobin) and Caramba (metconazole) applied in two stages of stand development (DC 47 and 55). Compared to the untreated control plants the yield grains ranged between 6.9 and 16.5% after the application of fungicides. The application of fungicides increased the proportion of full grains and had a favourable effect on the chemical composition of grain. After the treatment with azoxystrobin the content of N-substances decreased from 11.43 to 11.07% as compared to the controls. The highest starch content of grain was observed after the application of the active ingredient metconazole; the average content ranged between 64.44 and 64.62%. Compared to the controls the highest relative yield of malt starch (124.2–125.2%) was achieved after the application of azoxystrobin or a combination of azoxystrobin and metconazole in the DC 47 stage. The highest average attainable degree of fermentation was 78.57% and was discovered in the untreated control. Keywords: malt barley; malt; fungicide; yields; grain quality
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