China Resources Enterprise Ltd., the Chinese partner of SABMiller Plc, reported on September, 3 its interim results for the six months ended June 30 2009.

The company’s total beverages business achieved turnover and attributable profit of HK$10,216 million and HK$341 million respectively, representing increases of 25.0% and 133.6% over the first half of 2008.

The company’s beer sales volume growth considerably outperformed the market during the first half of the year by growing more than twice as fast as the industry average. Notably, China Resources has strengthened its presence in certain provinces such as Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Zhejiang and Shandong. The company has also acquired the minority equity interests in certain non-wholly owned subsidiaries.

Apart from acquisitions, the Group said it will capture the opportunities to accelerate its industry consolidation policy by means of investment in greenfield breweries and upgrade of existing breweries.

“Such strategy will not only increase our market share but also improve the overall net profits of the business. Concurrently, the decline in the costs of raw materials in the market, coupled with the efforts in controlling raw materials will further lower production costs and boost our profitability,” the company said in its statement on H1 2009 results.

Looking forward, there will ...More Info

Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes announced on September, 4 it has closed its offer to buy approximately 29.78% of shares that it does not already own in Efes Breweries International, its Netherlands-based subsidiary.

On 20 July 2009, Anadolu Efes made a recommended cash offer for the entire issued share capital of EBI other than the 148,457,429 shares already owned by Anadolu Efes (which represent approximately 70.22 per cent of the issued share capital of EBI) at an offer price of US$2.22 in cash for each EBI Share, valuing each EBI GDR at US$11.10.

As at 1.00 p.m. (London time) on 3 September 2009, the sum of EBI Shares that Anadolu Efes either owned or for which it had received valid acceptances of the offer was 155,329,514 EBI Shares, representing in aggregate approximately 73.47 per cent of the issued share capital of EBI.

Dutch brewer Heineken intends to regain its leading position on the Romanian beer market by the end of this year, the Standard posted on September, 3.

The company is relying on results registered in the first six months, namely a 12 percent increase in net sales, up to RON436 million (€103 mln – computed at an estimated exchange rate of RON 4.2/€1), as well as on raising the efficiency of its activity, due to implementing the cost-cutting strategy drafted early this year.

The 12 percent rise in turnover is a significant result, considering that the market fell some 11 percent in the first half of 2009, according to Heineken officials.

At the end of June, the Ursus Breweries beer producer, SABMiller’s local subsidiary, became market leader, with a 30.6 percent share, according to data provided by MEMRB Retail Audit for April-June 2009, after several years of Heineken occupying the top spot. The representatives of the Dutch producer avoided commenting on the company’s market share in H1. At the end of 2008, Heineken’s share was of 29 percent.

“I am optimistic that Heineken will become local beer market leader by year-end and will gain market share in terms of value, due to measures to raise ...More Info

Beer production dropped 4% year-on-year in Latvia in the first half of 2009 as brewers manufactured 71.37 million litres of beer over the period, Flex News cited on September, 2 data by the Latvian State Revenue Service.

About 81% of the volume produced by Latvian brewers in the first six months of this year was sold domestically, which is nearly 10% less than a year ago. About 7% of Latvian beer was sold in foreign countries, mostly in Lithuania.

The nation’s beer imports totalled 9.355 mln in the first half, down 5.2% from the first half of 2008. Beer imports were relatively small during the six months as Latvians tend to prefer local beer brands, although the proportion has changed this year as the share of imported beer increased.

Latvian beer sales totalled 76.42 million litres in the first half of 2009, dipping 2% from the same period in 2008. In 2008, Latvian breweries produced 74.32 million litres of beer.

UK-based world’s No. 2 brewer SABMiller Plc is seeking to extend an existing $1 billion loan by another year to October 2010, Reuters cited two bankers on September, 3.

According to the sources, SABMiller has asked relationship banks to roll over commitments on the $1 billion one-year loan that was signed in October 2008.

Bankers are expected to extend the self-arranged loan for a further 364 days under the existing bank agreement which included one-year extension options.

The brewer declined to comment the information.

The news from Serengeti Breweries about SABMiller offering to buy it has revived Tanzania’s beer dispute, Reuters communicated on September, 4.

SABMiller and rival international brewer Diageo are both attempting to increase their presence in the region and the latter's Kenya-based East Africa Breweries (EABL) had agreed to buy a stake in Serengeti, while ending a manufacturing and distribution contract with SABMiller's Tanzania Breweries (TBL).

The London High Court granted SABMiller an injunction against that move last month and Serengeti has now responded to the ruling by saying claims its planned partnership with EABL was negative for competition in Tanzania were disingenuous.

“It is interesting to note that TBL's parent company, SABMiller, recently made a proposal - at a very generous price - to acquire SBL,” it said in a newspaper advertisement, without revealing how big the offer was or when it was made.

“If this attempt had been successful, this would only have served to restrict competition still further and potentially result in the closure of a number of breweries. Why would the same business need more than one brewery in the same town?”

The injunction blocks EABL from acquiring Serengeti until January 2011. The court's ruling said the dispute would ...More Info

EU’s malting barley markets report only a handful of small-scale deals in the last week, La Depeche posted on September, 4. Prices continue moving downwards.

It is quite natural that the sellers remain reticent in such conditions. As for demand, maltsters are supposedly covered up to December.

On the feed barley markets, the activity also remains far from desired. Actually, the available volumes of feed grain do not tempt consumers to make large purchases at the moment.

C. Lekkas, A.E. Hill, B. Taidi, J. Hodgson, and G.G. Stewart

Abstract:
J. Inst. Brew. 115(2), 134–139, 2009 The utilisation of small peptides by brewing yeast is poorly understood despite a wealth of information on peptide transport by other microorganisms. A novel method for detection, isolation and measurement of small peptides during brewery wort fermentations was used to monitor utilisation by ale and lager yeast strains. Oligopeptide levels in wort were found to fluctuate throughout the fermentations. Measurement of extracellular protease activity provided evidence that yeast are able to continually regulate protease production in order to break down wort polypeptides into utilisable nitrogeneous materials. Key words: free amino nitrogen, wort oligopeptides, yeast proteases. Load full article, 6 pages, 363 kb , PDF file