InBev began courting Anheuser-Busch shareholders and staff after making a $46.3 billion bid, hoping to add Budweiser to its own Stella Artois and Beck's beers and create the world's largest brewer, Reuters reported June 12.

"We respect the Anheuser-Busch BUD.D board a lot ... we admire them a lot and we think that the business rationale is very strong," InBev Chief Executive Carlos Brito said.

Brito said the new company would retain top managers and board members from both sides, suggesting InBev was looking for a friendly merger of equals rather than a hostile takeover.

"The combined company would be run by the combined entities," he said, without divulging whether he would seek to head the new beer behemoth himself.

InBev stock was up 2.9 percent at 48.66 euros by 1047 GMT Thursday, while shares in Anheuser, which counts Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N: Quote, Profile, Research) as its second largest shareholder with a 5 percent stake, jumped more than 7 percent to $62.73 on Wednesday.

"Acquirers aren't punished for pursuing sensible acquisitions, despite that being surprising given the market conditions," a London-based equity trader said.

InBev is offering $65 per share for Anheuser, which dominates the U.S. beer market with a 48.5 percent share.

A ...More Info

Budejovicky Budvar last year raised pre-tax profit by 13 percent to Kc302m and revenues of the last state-owned brewery were 8 percent higher at Kc2.301bn, Budejovicky's management told CTK, June 11.

Budejovicky is the third largest brewery in the CzechRep after Plzensky Prazdroj and Staropramen and also the third biggest beer exporter.

Plzensky Prazdroj, which has a 50-percent market share, saw its net profit rise by 12 percent to Kc3.88bn in the business year ending March 31, and total sales rose by 8.8 percent to Kc15.6bn.

Budejovicky CEO Jiri Bocek said that higher sales, more effective cost management and measures to minimise exchange rate risks are behind last year's improvement. Still, however, the firming crown caused a Kc80m shortfall in sales in the past two years. Rising prices of energy and input materials have affected the company's profit and added value, Bocek said.

Last year, the company sold 1.253 million hl of beer, up 8.8 percent on the year. Its sales grew faster than was the average of the Czech beer market, said Bocek. Domestic sales added 11.7 percent to 666,163 hl, while beer consumption rose by 0.5 percent to 16.4 million hl. Light lager accounts for around 60 percent of sales and draught ...More Info

InBev's $46 billion bid for Anheuser-Busch could not only create the largest brewer in China, it could also raise profit margins for all players in the world's biggest beer market, Reuters reported June 11.

The Belgian brewer has been reported to be sniffing around Anheuser, the largest U.S. brewer and maker of Budweiser and Michelob beers, although there has been no confirmation of a deal.

Analysts say acquiring Anheuser's China assets would give Inbev two advantages: The scale to challenge market leader CR Snow, which dominates the mass market with a 16 percent share;, and a leading role in healing a fragmented industry of roughly 400 brewers in need of better marketing and distribution.

"InBev is involved with a number of smaller breweries all across the country, and so a combination of InBev plus AB would serve the market well, in the way that consolidation can move forward sooner rather than later," said Selina Sia, an analyst at JP Morgan.

Buying Anheuser would hand Inbev a coveted 27 percent stake in Tsingtao, China's No. 2 brewer, ownership of the Harbin Brewery Group's 13 breweries, and the No. 1 spot enjoyed by Budweiser in the country's most expensive "super-premium" beer segment.

The importance of China's beer ...More Info

Beer and quasi-beer shipments in Japan in May fell 1.9 pct from a year before to 40,162,000 cases, down for the third straight month, industry data showed, according to Jiji Press, June 11.

But against the general downtrend, shipments of so-called third-segment beverages rose 16.3 pct to 9,842,000 cases thanks to robust demand for new products such as Asahi Breweries Ltd.'s "Clear Asahi." One case contains the equivalent of 20 633-milliliter bottles.

This result clearly shows consumer interest have shifted to the lowest-price segment of alcoholic beverages amid a string of price hikes of food and other products in Japan.

According to data provided by breweries, shipments of beer declined 5.5 pct to 20,560,000 cases, posting the third straight decrease. Those of "happoshu" quasi-beer fell 9.1 pct to 9,760,000 cases due to a dearth of new product launches.

As a result, shipments of the third-segment beverages beat those of happoshu in May, again. The third-segment products' shipments exceeded those of happoshu for the first time in April 2006, prior to the introduction of higher taxes on the cheapest beer-like drinks.

By maker, Suntory Ltd. enjoyed a 30 pct rise of shipments as the company put off price hikes for canned products until September. Asahi's shipments ...More Info

Cobra Beer, the lager brand controlled by Lord Karan Bilimoria, saw losses nearly treble in its most recent financial year as advertising, restructuring and the cost of expanding into India offset a 42pc rise in revenues, The Telegraph published June 6.

Pre-tax losses at the UK-based company hit £13.1m in the 12 months to the end of July last year against a loss of £4.4m in the same period a year earlier, according to accounts filed with Companies House.

Revenues hit £43.2m as Cobra said it expected to achieve growth of more than 35pc in the year to the end of July this year.

News of the losses comes as Lord Bilimoria is attempting to raise £13m from City investors to fund Cobra's expansion in India and follows comments in The Sunday Telegraph where he signalled a prospective sale of the company.

"It's a very likely option that someone comes along and makes us an offer we cannot refuse," he said. "I am not saying I am definitely going to sell the company. What I am saying is that definitely within three years we will have to have a major event."

The losses come despite strong growth in Cobra's core UK market, with sales up ...More Info

According to data released by the U.S. Beer Institute, beer-import volumes in April 2008 were accelerating after the weak start in this year, Barrons reported June 12. The volumes were up by 10% year over year (lapping prior-year comparable sales of minus-2.9% in April 2007). This is a commendable recovery from the very weak start to the year which saw January import volumes down by 21.8%. As of the end of April, the year-to-date decline stands at minus-2.4%.

Mexico, which accounts for almost half of the total U.S. import volumes, showed significant recovery in April, with shipments increasing by 21.1% (April 2007: minus-6.8%). Netherlands recorded a volume growth of 8% benefiting easy comparable sales from the last year (April 2007: minus-11.2%). More recent AC Nielsen depletions data to 17 May show Amstel Light volumes down by 8% year over year for the four weeks; the previous 12 weeks depletion now stands at minus-6.6%. Heineken Premium Light, which is more significant in total volume and profit contribution to the Heineken portfolio in the U.S., remains robust -- growing volumes by 19% in the latest four-week period; the recent 12-week growth for this brand stood at 13.2%. The overall volumes for Heineken were ...More Info

Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc has had preliminary talks with Mexican brewer Grupo Modelo SAB de CV about a possible tie-up that could thwart an unsolicited takeover bid by InBev NV, the Wall Street Journal reported, according to Reuters, June 12.

Citing people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said Anheuser approached Carlos Fernandez, chief executive of Modelo and an Anheuser director, about a deal after news surfaced that InBev was weighing a bid for Anheuser.

Modelo declined to comment, and Anheuser was not immediately available. But Anheuser, which said Wednesday it received a $46.3 billion takeover bid from Belgium's InBev, has repeatedly declined to comment. It cited its policy to not confirm, deny or speculate on rumors.

Modelo, maker of Negra Modelo and Corona Extra, is 50 percent owned by Anheuser, though the St. Louis-based brewer of Budweiser and Michelob has no role in managing the company.

Since Anheuser's management is widely thought to oppose a takeover by InBev, analysts have said it could seek to buy the other half of Modelo to make itself too big for InBev to buy.

One analyst, who declined to be named, said the remaining half of Modelo would be worth about $11 billion.

"We think Anheuser had one major lever ...More Info

It is not clear yet, how exports will be registered after July 1, when export licences and customs-clearance will not exist any more for malt shipments, the analysts have recently reported.

In past years Eurostat counted exports double, which were customs-cleared in their country of origin, but transited though Belgium. We must hope that from now on correct export figures will be available shortly after shipment from export points.

Malting barley market was very calm again this week, with no offers, which blocked the deals, La Depeche published June 12. Worries about the crop in Scandinavia and Germany persist as the rain doesn’t come.

Feed barley market was too weak this week, both for old and new crops. Prices for feed barley follow those for feed wheat.

Barley crop prospects in the 3 large CIS countries are the best since years, according to the analysts. The Ukrainian government abandoned its export quota system, and Moscow also promised to deregulate exports on July 1.

The market wonders, though, how far the Black Sea countries can be trusted, if negative developments occur again. Above figures show that Black Sea exports could double from 3 Mill. tons this campaign to 6 Mill. in 2008/09. The malting capacities in Russia and the Ukraine are being expanded, nevertheless local sources believe that their local supplies of good malting barley will be sufficient and make imports unnecessary.

An expansion of barley acres from 550.000 to 700.000 HA had been foreseen in Argentina, the analysts have recently reported.

Dry conditions and the tense political situation provide for some uncertainty, whether this target will be achieved.

The 2008 Australian crop resulted in a significant improvement in results when compared to crop 2007, according to Barth-Hass Group, May 7. A 10% increase in the area harvested resulted in a 34% increase in yield over crop 2007.

In order to meet the growing demand for Australian hops, most growers have pushed farms back to, and even beyond, what may have previously been considered 100% of capacity. This has been achieved by planting out previously idled areas under trellis, to maximise production, with a direct result of a corresponding increase in strain on framework. Fortunately all trellis held up under the generally larger crops.

Overall the Australian production (kilograms of hops) was some 4% below expected (long term average) yields.

It should be noted that crop 2008 is fully sold, after meeting all contractual obligations.

Berne L. Jones USDA, ARS, Cereal Crops Research Unit, 501 N. Walnut St., Madison, WI, 53705, USA and Department of Agronomy, University of Wisconsin- Madison.

Abstract
The endoproteinases that form during the malting of barley play important roles in determining the soluble protein levels of worts prepared from the malt. The soluble protein levels, in turn, can affect many aspects of the beers made from these worts, including their haziness, foam characteristics, extent of fermentation, etc. We have been characterizing these endoproteinases and their endogenous inhibitors for several years and are now trying to determine which ones play important roles in solubilizing proteins during mashing and how the endogenous barley and malt proteinase inhibitors affect this solubilization. ... Load full article, 8 pages, 197 Kb, PDF file