Anheuser-Busch Cos's board plans to meet face-to-face tomorrow for the first time since rival brewer InBev formally made its $46bn bid to buy the company, The Financial Times posted on June 19, citing people close to the situation.

The directors will weigh a variety of options for Anheuser, the 150-year-old brewer of Budweiser beer. But in a sign that Anheuser may not unequivocally reject InBev's advances, insiders say its advisers will focus the board's attention on the valuation of InBev's bid. At $65 per Anheuser share, they may argue that the bid is too low for a brand that InBev has called "iconic".

The offer, which equates to roughly 12 times Anheuser's 2007 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation, represents a 35 per cent premium to Anheuser's average share price over the month before the bid announcement. Carlos Brito, InBev's chief executive, said yesterday that it had offered a "full price".

Sales of other well-known brands including Wrigley and Gillette have earned richer valuations, however, and Anheuser may point to those examples in its response to InBev.

Anheuser's shares closed yesterday at $61.90, as investors attempted to handicap the likelihood of a deal. The bid by the Belgian brewer for Anheuser has all ...More Info

Sapporo Breweries Ltd. said on June 19th it will list the amount of carbon dioxide emitted during the manufacture of each can on the labels of its flagship beer product, Japan’s Corporate News communicated.

Starting in March next year, the major Japanese brewer will indicate how much CO2 is emitted from the time ingredients are planted to the time the can is disposed of on "Kuro Label" 350-mililiter cans.

According to the company, no other beer maker in the world is announcing its product's carbon footprint in such a way, and the company sees it as a measure against global warming.

Sapporo Breweries can accurately figure out the amount of CO2 emissions because it fully controls the beer-making process, including barley and hop production, which are entirely undertaken by contracted farmers, company officials said.

The move by Sapporo Breweries, part of Sapporo Holdings Ltd., is in line with the possible nationwide implementation of carbon footprints in Japan.

The Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Ministry launched a task force this month made up of academics, food and food package makers and retailers to establish rules on CO2 emission labeling by March next year.

The US group ADM and the French group Malteurop, recently held discussions on ADM’s possible sale of its subsidiary ADM Malting to the Malteurop group, a subsidiary of the holding SICLAE of which Champagne Céréales Group is the main shareholder.

The Malteurop Group is the third-largest world malting company and is one of the leading operators on today’s malt market, with an annual production capacity exceeding 1,200,000 metric tons, according to company's official site. The Group is present in seven European countries and in Asia at fifteen industrial sites. With 450 employees, the Group’s annual business volume is 330 million euros.

Maryam Yaldagard Seyed Ali Mortazavi and Farideh Tabatabaie

Abstract
J. Inst. Brew. 114(1), 14-21, 2008 In this study the effects of different intensities and exposure time of ultrasound on barley seed have been investigated to determine the optimal conditions for accelerating germination. For optimization, the Taguchi approach was used. The germination rates and/or yield of the treated sample seed were compared with those of the untreated seed germinated under normal conditions. The seeds were treated with ultrasonic energy (input power 20- 90% of 460W) and were exposed to three time periods ranging from 5 to 15 min. It was found that germination of the treated barley seed was increased about 1.042–1.065 times compared with that of the untreated seed. The ultrasonic treatment proved to be efficient in reducing the germination period by 30-45%. It was concluded that priming of seeds with ultrasound was effective in improving water uptake and germination. The data presented in this paper suggest that the increase in final germination percentage, together with the reduced germination period in treated seeds, may be due to the action of ultrasound and that it led to an improved hydration process with concurrent shell fragmentation. Key words: Barley seed, enhancing germination, optimization, Taguchi technique, ultrasonic priming technique. ... Load full article, 8 pages, 353 Kb, PDF file