San Miguel Corp. said its brewery unit posted a 37-percent increase in net profit for the first quarter on the back of higher sales and continued cost management efforts, Inquirer reported April 11.

San Miguel Brewery Inc.'s quarterly net profit stood at P2.5 billion ($60 million), with sales up 13 percent at P12.3 billion, San Miguel said in a statement.

Sales volume grew 18 percent and operating profit expanded 35 percent to P3.7 billion.

The results immediately followed an announcement that SMBI, which has a share of about 93 percent of the domestic beer market, has lowered the top end of the indicative price range for its initial public offering.

The indicative offer price now ranges between P8.00 and P11.00 per share, narrower compared to the previous range of P8.00 to P15.40, said Eduardo Francisco, president of underwriter BDO Capital and Investment Corp.

"We did some pre-marketing and there is strong demand within that range. Hopefully, there will be no more price adjustments," he told reporters. It was the second time the indicative price range of the IPO had been adjusted. In an initial filing, SMBI said it was looking to sell up to 1.5 billion shares at between P9.50 and P16.30 per share.

SMBI will ...More Info

Carlsberg's joint venture South Asia Breweries strengthens its operations in India via the addition of two more Greenfield breweries, one in Maharashtra (West India) and one in West Bengal (East India), according to company’s press release, April 10.

Both breweries are planned to commence production during Q2 this year.

The brewery in Maharashtra is located in Aurangabad near Mumbai. This plant is almost identical to the greenfield plant in Rajasthan, and will have an initial licensed capacity of 500.000 hl.

The brewery in West Bengal is located near Kolkata, and is part of a joint venture between South Asia Breweries (60%) and local partners from West Bengal lead by Mr. Parag Mitra and Mr. Debasis Mukherjee. This plant will have an initial capacity of 120,000 hl, however with significant possibilities for expansion.

As planned, the greenfield brewery in Alwar, in Rajasthan, commenced production and deliveries in Q1 this year.

The fourth brewery owned by South Asia Breweries is located in the state of Himachal Pradesh north of the Indian capital of New Delhi. This brewery launched production of Carlsberg Group brands last summer and it has a capacity of 150.000 hl with possibilities for expansion.

The portfolio of the four breweries includes a number of brands ...More Info

Asahi Breweries Ltd. captured the top position in beer and quasi-beer shipments in Japan in January-March, according to data released by major beer producers, Jiji Press reported April 10.

Asahi, which raised the prices of its beer and beer-like drinks in March, saw its shipments fall 2.8 pct from a year before to 35,050,000 cases in the period.

Shipments by Kirin Brewery Co., which raised its product prices in February, dropped 6.9 pct to 33,998,000 cases.

As a result, Asahi's market share came to 37.0 pct, against 35.9 pct for Kirin, which ranked second in January-March shipments. One cases contains the equivalent of 20 633-milliliter bottles.

Shipments by Sapporo Breweries Ltd., which hiked its product prices this month, fell 0.9 pct to 12,631,000 cases. It ranked third with a market share of 13.3 pct.

Suntory Ltd. saw its shipments increase 8.6 pct to 12,080,000 cases with a market share of 12.8 pct. The company raised the prices of its restaurant-use barreled and bottled beer products this month while keeping the prices of other products unchanged.

Overall domestic shipments of beer and quasi-beer products came to 94,685,000 cases in January-March, down 2.6 pct from a year earlier, according to data released by the Brewery Association of Japan ...More Info

Heineken N.V. announced the intended acquisition of the beverage division of Eichhof Holding AG in Lucerne, Switzerland, in a press release, April 10. The intended transaction will strengthen Heineken's number two position in the market, giving the company an estimated, combined market share of 23%.

The beverage division of Eichhof Holding comprises the production and distribution of beers, non-alcoholic beverages and wine and employs approximately 450 staff. The company is the owner of the Eichhof brewery in Lucerne, which has a production capacity of 400,000 hectolitres and 2007 domestic beer sales volumes of 361,000 hectolitres. Its main brand, Eichhof, is the leading mainstream beer in the Lucerne region. The company has an estimated 10% market share of the Swiss beer market. Soft drinks and wine account for 45% of total volumes. The purchase price is CHF 278.5 million (EUR 176 million) or CHF 1657.30 for every Eichhof Getränke Holding share. The enterprise value is CHF 290 million, corresponding to a multiple of 12 times 2007 EBITDA, implying a significant premium to the sector average. The acquisition will be funded from existing credit facilities and will be earnings enhancing in 2009 and value enhancing in 2010. The intended acquisition will be ...More Info

The best-selling beer brands in hotels, restaurants and outdoor restaurants are domestic brands Ursus, Timisoreana and Bergenbier, with the first two included in the portfolio of Ursus Breweries, while the third is part of InBev Romania, according to a survey conducted by MEMRB market research firm, Ziarul Financiar published April 11.

The on-premise segment annually generates over 30% of total beer sales, namely 5.8m euros.

Ursus, the best-selling beer on this segment, holds a 15% share of the on-premise market, closely followed by Timisoreana, which held a 14.2% share between December 2007-February 2008, according to representatives of Ursus Breweries, which rank second on the market.

"The on-premise channel is very important, not only in terms of sales, but also in terms of the company's image and brand. (...) We have solid results on the on-premise segment and we'll make further investments, because we consider it to be the channel where brand image is best built," stated Mihai Barsan, a group mainstream and economy brand manager of Ursus Breweries, which derived turnover worth above 185m euros in 2006.

Club owners also see consumption in this type of locations as an important boost for their image.

The results Ursus posted on the on-premise segment last year are ...More Info

Mauritanian group Phoenix Beverages will invest 17.5 million euros to build a brewery in partnership with a Belgian company, G4S reported April 11.

The new brewery will start production next year. All the production will be designated for local market.

Phoenix Beverages is also operating in Sri Lanka but the capacity of that brewery is lower and the market conditions are more difficult.

AmBev Peru, one of the country's leading beer companies and the producer of Brahma, has announced the launch of a new alcoholic drink in the country, exclusively made for Peruvians, Living in Peru reported April 10.

It was announced that the new beer will only be made and sold in Peru. The name of AmBev's new product has not been announced yet.

According to El Comercio, Peruvians will now have an even greater variety of beers to choose from. Since Aje, a Lima-based corporation, entered the beer market there has been a greater variety of products, said El Comercio.

The formula was developed by InBev's best and most-qualified specialists, said Cristiano Sampaio, the general manager of AmBev Peru.

With the release of this new beer, AmBev is diversifying the products it is offering in Peru. It was reported that the company did not rule out launching a third brand in the near future.

"Brahma and the new beer will stay on the market. We'll see, depending on how things go, if we bring more of InBev's international brands," said Sampaio.

AmBev's new beer is to be launched before the end of April.

Malting barley market has bee atonic this week with almost no malsters interested in purchasing barley, La Depeche reported April 11. The prices continue to decrease.

On feed barley market the situation seems to be the same, with no interest from buyers and prices which go down. The exports are also calm.

As per IGC figures the use of barley for feed dropped by 7 million tons worldwide during the present crop year, because prices were substantially higher than maize and sorghum in the first 7 to 8 months of the season, analysts have recently reported. But barley stocks remain very tight anyway, because imports of the deficit countries will only drop from 15.4 to 14.8 mil tons (IGC).

Russia virtually prohibits barley exports by an export tax of 30 %, the Ukraine had not exported at all until February and has now increased its permitted export quota to 900.000 tons, but shipments to-date are no more than 200.000 tons. All other exporters, Canada, USA, EU, Australia and Kazakhstan had to make up for the gap left by Russia and Ukraine.

Robert Lee, Maria Hrmova, Rachel Burton and Geoffrey Fincher Department of Plant Science, The University of Adelaide, Waite Road, Urrbrae S.A. 5064.

Introduction
Following water uptake and germination of a barley grain, hydrolytic enzymes that are mainly secreted from the scutellar epithelial layer and the aleurone layer, catalyse the depolymerization of starch and protein reserves in the starchy endosperm. Degradation products are subsequently absorbed by the scutellum and translocated to the developing seedling. During commercial malting operations, barley grain is steeped in water and germinated under conditions designed to maximise the modification of the starchy endosperm, but to minimise vegetative growth of the young seedling (Bamforth and Barclay, 1993; Briggs et al., 1981). In both processes enzymic degradation of cell walls in the starchy endosperm is crucial. Because most of the key enzymes are secreted from the aleurone layers, the walls of starchy endosperm cells represent a physical barrier which denies the enzymes free access to their substrates within starchy endosperm cells. As a result, the rapid early removal of the cell wall is of central importance both for the successful germination of the grain (Fincher, 1989) and for the production of a well-modified malt (Bamforth and Barclay, 1993).
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