Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (“FEMSA”) announced on July, 28 its operational and financial results for the second quarter and the first half of 2009.

FEMSA Cerveza, the company’s brewing division, reported total revenues increase of 6.7%, while income from operations decreased slightly by 0.7%. Sales volume in Mexico decreased 5.9% and 8.4% in Brazil, but strong pricing in both markets compensated for the soft volume trends resulting in revenue growth of 3.2% and 0.5%, respectively. Export sales volume grew 2.4%, despite a sustained decline in the US import category. Top-line growth combined with operating expense containment partially offset raw material pressures, resulting in a slight decrease of 0.7% in income from operations.

FEMSA’s Mexico beer sales volume decreased 5.9% to 7.017 million hectolitres in 2Q09, during what the company believes will turn out to be the most challenging quarter in 2009 from an economic environment perspective, particularly in the hard-hit manufacturing hubs in the north of the country and compounded by the H1N1 flu outbreak. However, Mexico price per hectolitre showed robust growth of 9.7% over 2Q08 to Ps. 1,159.0 in 2Q09, resulting from price increases implemented during the second quarter of 2009, in addition to the increases carried ...More Info

Kirin Holdings Company, Limited ("Kirin"), Japan’s No. 1 brewer, said on July, 27 that it has revised its consolidated earnings results forecast for the January – June period of fiscal 2009, (previously announced on February 10, 2009) in consideration of its recent business performance and other factors.

Due to fluctuations in exchange rates since the end of 2008 a currency-related gain has arisen on yen denominated Group loans of Kirin's consolidated subsidiaries in Australia, the brewer said.

As a result the company expects that consolidated interim ordinary income will be 56 bln yen, 47.4% higher than previous forecast, and consolidated interim net income will be 14 bln yen, 40.0% higher than previous forecast.

Operating income is expected to increase by 11.1% from the previous forecast to 40 bln yen.

Sales forecast has been revised downwards to 1,060 bln yen (- 0.9%).

According to industry experts’ estimates, Germany’s beer sales fell by 5% in the first half of 2009, Kurier posted on July, 27.

Data by Germany national news agency DPA show that in the first six months of this year the sales of Veltins beer decreased by 6.5%, those of Krombacher – by 5.3%, Bittburger – by 4.6%, Warsteiner – by 6.5%, König – by 6.7%, Jever – by 7%.

In 2008, the nation’s per capita beer consumption was 111.1 litres. By the end of the year, the rate may fall to 100 litres per capita, DPA said.

“The industry has never seen such a drop,” Michael Weiß, vice-president of German Federation of Brewers, said. He added that the German beer market may shrink by an average two percent in the next years.

The CEO of German brewer Veltins said that earliest in 2012 growth may return to the German beer market. Veltins recently said that output in the first half declined by 6.5 percent.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners has made the only bid for Anheuser-Busch InBev's Central and Eastern European assets, Reuters cited people familiar with the matter on July, 29.

According to sources, CVC’s bid was worth about EUR1 bln - EUR1.5 bln (US$1.4 bln - US$2.1 bln).

TPG, which was expected to also make an offer by July, 27th's deadline, has not submitted a bid and is out of the process, one of the sources said.

Bankers said last week that offers were expected to be around US$2 billion.

AB InBev has been looking for offers of around EUR2 billion (US$2.8 billion), one person said.

The person added that AB InBev had explored the possibility of splitting up the Central and Eastern European assets.

The field of potential bidders has narrowed in recent weeks, with Cinven, Warburg Pincus and KKR all having dropped out of the proceedings.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the auction for the brewing assets continues as other suitors remain interested.

AB InBev, the brewer of Budweiser, Stella and Beck's, has said it wants to raise US$7 billion from divestments to repay US$45 billion of loans for Belgian InBev's US$52 billion takeover last year of U.S. brewer Anheuser-Busch.

Previously, the Wall Street Journal said CVC ...More Info

By the end of 2008, the output of Chinese beer had ranked first in the world. Last year, affected by the increase in price of raw materials and the financial crisis, etc, the total output of China’ beer was 41.03 million tons with an increase of only 5.46% YOY, which was the lowest in recent years, says the latest report by Reportlinker.com.

The output of Chinese beer has been the world first for many years and China is one of the regions where beer markets grow fastest in the world. At present, Chinese beer industry is still in the mid and late integration phase. In 2009, although it is affected by the financial crisis, the competition in beer market is still violent. Brewers have a relatively fierce competition in brands, markets and channels, etc.

Judging from Chinese beer market, after a series of M & A, Tsingtao, China Resources, Yanjing beer companies have established the first rank in this field. Zhujiang, Harbin and Kingstar beers are forming the second rank.

Currently Chinese beer market is in regional distribution, which means that every market is occupied by certain beer companies. For example, China Resources and Harbin beers occupy the Northeast China; Yanjing beer occupies ...More Info

Belgium-based brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev said on July, 24 it has completed the previously announced sale of Oriental Brewery (“OB”) to an affiliate of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (“KKR”) for 1.8 billion USD.

Under the terms of the agreement, AB InBev will continue its relationship with OB, South Korea’s second-largest brewer, through granting OB exclusive licenses to distribute certain brands in South Korea including Budweiser, Bud Ice and Hoegaarden and by having an ongoing interest in OB through an agreed earnout. In addition, AB InBev has the right but not the obligation to reacquire OB after five years at predetermined financial terms.

The divestiture of OB is part of AB InBev’s ongoing de-leveraging program and generates proceeds that will be used to repay debt incurred as a result of the combination of InBev and Anheuser-Busch. The impact on recurring results is immaterial and AB InBev expects to record a non-recurring capital gain of 440 million USD in the third quarter of 2009.

JP Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Lazard acted as financial advisors to AB InBev. Kim & Chang and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as legal counsel.

The decline in beer sales has started to show signs of stabilisation despite overall beer sales still recording a dip of 4.8% for the second quarter of 2009 on last year, the Morning Advertiser communicated on July, 29.

Although the decline in beer sales seems to be slowing, pubs still saw a 4.5% dip and supermarkets a 5.2% drop, according to the UK Quarterly Beer Barometer published by the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA).

The 4.5% drop in pub beer sales means 4.2 mln fewer pints were drunk each week during the second quarter.

The Government's tax revenue from beer plummeted £156 mln in the first half of 2009 as result of declining sales.

The figures reveal some stabilisation in overall beer sales compared to the 8.3% drop in the final quarter of 2008 and the 7.8% drop in the first quarter of this year.

Beer sales in supermarkets and off-licences have now fallen at a faster rate than sales in pubs for two consecutive quarters.

“Whilst welcoming a slowing of the decline in beer sales, we are wary about reading too much into these early signs," said BBPA chief executive David Long.

"However, the new figures give some ground for cautious optimism that some ...More Info

The Malaysian unit of Danish brewer Carlsberg has offered to buy Carlsberg Singapore Pte Ltd for 370 million ringgit ($105.5 million) in cash, Reuters reported on July, 28.

Carlsberg Malaysia expects to complete the planned acquisition on or before November 1, it said in a statement to the Malaysian stock exchange.

Carlsberg Singapore is a unit of Carlsberg Asia Pte Ltd, which in turn is a unit of Carlsberg, the holding company of Carlsberg Malaysia.

"The existing licence agreement between Carlsberg and Carlsberg Singapore will continue for a period of 20 years following the completion (of the acquisition)," it said in a statement.

Carlsberg Malaysia managing director Soren Jensen said in an interview in April that the company had interest-bearing cash of about 227 million ringgit and was hunting for an acquisition target in Asia to diversify earnings.

Now, the CEO said the proposed acquisition and expansion in the region would benefit the company strategically as it was a good business fit.

“The financial rationale for the proposed acquisition is justifiable as there are significant synergies to be realised, the investment is earnings accretive to Carlsberg Malaysia and Carlsberg Malaysia’s surplus funds are fully optimised,” he added. The Malaysian unit of Danish brewer Carlsberg has offered to ...More Info

Improved export interest in malt produced from UK spring barley could also bring a welcome benefit for UK winter malting barley, as domestic end users seek it as an alternative against greater competition for the spring crop, FarmingUK communicated on July, 28.

These are on top of other factors which could see an upturn in demand for malting barley next season, experts suggest.

According to Adrian Dyter, commercial director of Greencore Malt, although winter malting barley is supplied to the domestic brewing market, not the export trade, weaker UK currency has improved the situation with spring export malt recently. "It’s had a beneficial effect on our competitiveness and made our malt more attractive to overseas buyers," Mr Dyter points out.

As a result, renewed energy is going into the development of export markets, he says. "That, in turn, could help with the demand for winter barley from UK-based brewers." But a good quality crop will still be important for securing markets, he adds.

Robert Hiles, global malting barley business manager for Syngenta Seeds, agrees that export interest in UK spring barley malt could benefit winter barley. A reduction in spring barley plantings in mainland Europe this season could encourage this situation, he notes.

"We hear ...More Info

Poreda Aleksander, Antkiewicz Piotr, Tuszynski Tadeusz and Malgorzata Makarewicz

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(1), 78–83, 2009 Magnesium, zinc and calcium are the elements that are involved in the regulation of metabolic activity of yeast and/or other processes such as flocculation and cell division. The requirements for specific ions may be subject to changes in successive fermentations performed by the same biomass. The aim of this work was to analyze the changes in calcium, magnesium and zinc concentration in malt broth (9°P) and in the yeast over four successive fermentations. For all ionic species analysed, the qualitative uptake and release patterns observed during subsequent fermentations were similar. In the lag phase of the fermentation, yeast cells accumulated the metal ions under investigation, in order to liberate them later to an extent that depended on the specific metal and fermentation number. Some differences were noted when qualitative comparison of these processes was performed. During the first fermentation with the yeast culture, the maximum content of each ion in the yeast biomass was twoto threefold higher than in the subsequent fermentations. Calcium, magnesium and zinc levels in the biomass did not exceed 1, 6 and 0.6 mg/g yeast dry weight respectively. Key words: bioaccumulation, brewer’s yeast, calcium, magnesium, metal ions, release, zinc. Load full article, 6 pages, 447 kb , PDF file