Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes announced on March, 30 its audited consolidated financial results for the year ended December 31, 2009.

Efes’ total beer sales volume dropped 1.9% to 22.1 mln hl last year as its Turkey Beer Operations were affected by higher procurement prices versus previous year as well as by the devaluation of the local currency impacting F/X-denominated input costs. However the significant decrease in the cost of sales of the international beer operations as a percentage of net sales revenue more than offset this negative impact on a consolidated basis and accordingly Anadolu Efes’ consolidated gross profit increased by 5.2% to TRL1,903.1 million in absolute terms in 2009 over the previous year with a margin improvement of 65 basis points to 49.9%.

In 2009, Anadolu Efes recorded TRL3,811.1 million of net sales revenue on a consolidated basis, indicating a growth of 3.9% over the previous year. As a result of local currency price increases, consolidated net sales revenue growth outpaced that of sales volume in 2009.

Anadolu Efes’ consolidated profit from operations increased by 3.3% to TRL648.0 million in 2009. Increased operational efficiencies partially absorbed the negative impact of higher operating expenses. As a result, Anadolu Efes’ consolidated profit from operations ...More Info

Fomento Económico Mexicano, S.A.B. de C.V. (“FEMSA”) announced on March, 29 that the Comisión Federal de Competencia, Mexico's anti-trust regulator, has approved without reservation the strategic exchange of 100% of the shares of the beer operations owned by FEMSA for an interest (a 20% stake) in Heineken.

Hart-Scott-Rodino approval has also been granted by the relevant trade authorities in the United States, FEMSA said. The transaction, which is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2010, is subject to customary regulatory approvals in other relevant jurisdictions, as well as approval by the FEMSA and Heineken shareholders.

FEMSA is selling its beer unit as it focuses on expanding its soft-drink and convenience store businesses.

Efes Breweries International N.V. (“EBI” or “the Company”), a subsidiary of Turkey’s No. 1 brewer Anadolu Efes, said on March, 29 its consolidated sales volume was 13.6 mln hl in the year ended December 31, 2009, indicating a decline of 3.1% compared to the previous year.

Organic sales volume declined by 2.2% in the reporting period, EBI said.

In Russia, EBI’s largest market, FY2009 sales volume was 10.7 mln hl, down 3.6% over 2008. Resulting from the global financial crisis, pressures on consumer demand in Russia continued in the last quarter of 2009. However, mainly due to the low base of 4Q2008, EBI’s sales volume decline was limited with 0.9% in Russia in the fourth quarter of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008.

In 2009, EBI once again managed to outperform the Russian market, which is estimated to have declined by 8% in FY2009, hence EBI increased its market share to 10% from 9% a year ago.

EBI’s consolidated net sales revenue declined by 17.4% to USD 857.3 million in 2009 despite local currency price increases. On an organic basis (by excluding the effect of Georgia for January‐February 2009 and Serbia in 1H2008), EBI’s consolidated net revenue declined by 16.7% in ...More Info

Shareholders of the Japanese beer maker Sapporo Holdings have rejected all candidates for its board proposed by U.S. fund Steel Partners, which again failed to rally support in a bitter proxy fight, Reuters communicated on March, 30.

At an annual shareholders meeting, shareholders also elected all 10 candidates proposed by Sapporo, the company said.

Steel Partners had been calling on shareholders to back its slate of 10 candidates, four of whom were also included in the beer maker's list.

Steel Partners, the largest shareholder in Sapporo with an 18 percent stake, has criticised the firm's management for its poor business performance.

The company's losing market share in Japan, with its sales of beer and malt-beverages down 36% by volume since 2001. Critically, it's lost the top spot in premium beer - a category that it pretty much invented in Japan - to rival Suntory Holdings. Sapporo's operating margin also lags behind rivals, at 3.3% compared with about 5.6% at both Kirin Holdings and Asahi Breweries.

Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes said on March, 30 it has acquired 10,987,470 EBI (Efes Breweries International) GDRs representing 54,937,350 EBI shares (representing approximately 25.98 per cent of the issued share capital of EBI) from a group of GDR holders at a price of $17.00 per GDR.

Prior to this transaction, Anadolu Efes already owned 155,329,514 EBI Shares representing approximately 73.47 per cent of the issued share capital of EBI. As a result of this transaction Anadolu Efes now controls approximately 99.45 per cent of the entire issued share capital of EBI.

The consideration of approximately $187 million has been provided from Anadolu Efes’ existing cash resources and an additional bilateral loan in the amount of $100 million with a maturity of 24 months.

Under the rules of the Takeover Code, Anadolu Efes intends to make an all cash offer as soon as reasonably practical to acquire the outstanding 1,161,705 EBI shares, representing approximately 0.55 per cent of the issued share capital of EBI at a price of $17.00 per GDR. Further, Anadolu Efes intends to instigate procedures to begin the compulsory purchase of any outstanding EBI shares pursuant to the squeeze out procedures in the Netherlands.

In order to allow other minority shareholders ...More Info

Axéréal and Greencore announced on March, 26 the official signing of an agreement according to which the ownership of Greencore’s malting business has been transferred to Axéréal.

Announced on February 11, the acquisition was submitted for approval to an extraordinary general meeting of Greencore's shareholders, as is required by law in Ireland for listed companies.

Through Boortmalt Group, its subsidiary, Axéréal now has a production capacity of more than 1.1 million tonnes spread out across its 11 European malting plants: Antwerp, Ghlin and Gembloux in Belgium, Issoudun in France, Knapton and Bury St Edmunds in England, Athy in Ireland, Glenesk and Buckie in Scotland, Dunaujvaros in Hungary and Nova Gradiska in Croatia. The Boortmalt Group is led by Yvan Schaepman, its CEO. He is supported by David Wilkes, its Deputy Chief Executive.

The acquisition allows the Boortmalt Group, which has a strong presence on the malt markets of South and Central America, Africa, Asia and Central Europe, to consolidate its position on the European market and become the leading player in the British Isles.

With a more than 1.1 mln tonnes production capacity and a €450 million annual turnover, Axéréal is now the world's fifth largest maltster.

Ewa Sikorska, Tomasz Górecki, Igor V. Khmelinskii, Marek Sikorski and Denis De Keukeleire

J. Inst. Brew. 110(4), 267–275, 2004 ABSTRACT
Total luminescence and synchronous scanning fluorescence spectroscopic techniques were applied for characterization of the intrinsic fluorescence of eight different beers. Spectra were measured using different geometries to reveal the presence of similar fluorescent components. The total luminescence and synchronous fluorescence spectra exhibit a relatively intense shortwavelength emission ascribed to aromatic amino acids and less intense emission in the long-wavelength region, which may originate from B vitamins. Classification of beers based on their synchronous fluorescence spectra was performed using nonparametrical k nearest neighbours method and linear discriminant analysis. Very good discrimination was obtained in both methods with a low classification error. The results demonstrate the potential of fluorescence techniques to characterize and differentiate beers. Key words: Beer, discriminant analysis, synchronous fluorescence spectroscopy, total luminescence spectroscopy. Load full article, 9 pages, 595kb , PDF file