Foster’s Group Ltd. may be a takeover target after announcing plans to spin off its wine unit, with SABMiller Plc and Asahi Breweries Ltd. among companies attracted to the wider profit margins in Australia, Bloomberg cited fund managers on May, 26.

The brewing business may be worth more than A$13.5 billion ($11 billion) and draw interest from Suntory Holdings Ltd. and Sapporo Holdings Ltd. of Japan, said Theo Maas, who helps manage A$5 billion at Arnhem Investment Management in Sydney. The brewer of Foster’s Lager and Victoria Bitter, Australia’s top-selling brand, controls about 50 percent of the local market.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see Coca-Cola Amatil and SABMiller bid for the beer business,” said Rhett Kessler, who helps manage about $1.1 billion at Pengana Capital Ltd. in Sydney and doesn’t hold Foster’s shares.

SABMiller, which already owns Foster's in India and brewing rights to the brand in the U.S., declined to comment on the reports.

According to a Sydney Morning Herald citing an interview with Coca-Cola Amatil’s incoming alcoholic beverages unit head John Murphy, the company won’t bid for Foster’s Group Ltd.’s beer division. Coca-Cola Amatil will instead focus on developing its own beer brands, the newspaper cited Murphy as saying. Murphy starts ...More Info

Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery Group Co Ltd will expand its brewery market in Hunan Province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region after it kicks off initial public offering in the near future, China Knowledge communicated on May, 27.

Pursuant to the prospectus last weekend released by China Securities Regulatory Commission, Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery intends to issue 70 million shares to raise RMB 1.07 billion in total, to construct two brewery plants each is designed to produce 200,000 tons per year.

Board Chairman Fang Guiquan hopes that the firm will make a successful debut on the stock market within one or two months.

Reportedly, the company reaped RMB 112.47 million in operating profit in 2009, reflecting a year-on-year jump of 138.78%, and its net profit surged 42.84% year on year to RMB 85.69 million.

China Resources Breweries Ltd, one of Guangzhou Zhujiang Brewery's rivals, sold 8.37 million kiloliters of brewery last year, and the sales volume of Tsingtao Brewery Co Ltd hit 5.91 million kl and of Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co Ltd reached 4.67 million kl, it is reported.

The Brazilian government has slashed import duties on canned beer from 16% to 2% so that the country does not run dry during next month's football World Cup in South Africa, Reuters reported on May, 27.

The local breweries announced they would be unable to brew enough to supply the surge in demand during the month-long tournament.

"The industry itself declared in a letter to the Foreign Trade Chamber that it won't be able to satisfy the increase in demand," said Anamelia Seyffarth, an official at the chamber, said.

Brazil, which will play host to the World Cup in 2014, is the world's fourth largest beer consumer.

Australia’s beer consumption has dropped to a 60-year low in the year to June 30, 2009, the latest data published on May, 27 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show.

The estimated quantity of pure alcohol available for consumption from beer increased by 1.7% from 78.1 million litres in 2007–08 to 79.4 million litres of alcohol in 2008–09, the Bureau said.

Apparent per capita consumption of pure alcohol available for consumption from beer, for persons aged 15 years and over, decreased marginally from 4.51 litres of alcohol per person in 2007–08 to 4.49 litres of alcohol per person in 2008–09.

The volume of beer available for consumption increased slightly by 1.4% from 1,828.1 million litres in 2007–08 to 1,853.0 million litres in 2008–09.

Full strength beer accounted for most of the increase in total beer volume, by 2.7% or 36.8 million litres, followed by mid strength beer, which increased by 3.7% or 10.0 million litres. However, low strength beer decreased by 12.2% or 22.0 million litres in 2008–09. For the year 2008–09, the apparent per capita consumption of beer decreased by 1.0 litre of beer per person.

CommSec chief economist Craig James said Aussies were cutting back on mainstream beers in favour of ...More Info

South-western China has become an attractive market for the world’s leading brewers striving to strengthen their positions in China, China Daily communicated on May, 28.

"Most of our clientele come to have a drink after 7 pm, and we usually sell around 200 bottles of premium beer, priced at 15 yuan each, every day, even though our main business is food," said Xiao Li, a waiter at the Guan Jin bar in Jinli.

Molson Coors, the world's fifth-largest brewer is one of the biggest that have stepped up their investment pace here. The company recently spent $40 million to buy a 51 percent stake in a new joint venture with the Hebei Si'hai Beer Company. The joint venture plans to launch premium beers with lower production cost in China.

"Chengdu and Chongqing are among the cities that had the best sales figures last year for our premium brand Coors Light. We will consider making another new investment if the market keeps on growing," said Peter H. Coors, chairman of Molson Coors.

Companies like Molson Coors are also encouraged to expand as premium beer sales in south-western China are five times larger than in the northern regions, said John Zhang, general manager (operations), ...More Info

GrainCorp’s investment in the malting industry has paid dividends for the company. The company said its malting division was the single biggest contributor to the company's net profit after tax of A$53 million for the six months to March 31 this year.

GrainCorp will pay an interim dividend of 15 cents a share after opting not to pay a dividend for the corresponding period last year and only 7 cents for the whole of last financial year.

GrainCorp interim chief executive officer Ian Wilton said the half-year profit was a strong result for the company and highlighted the contribution of the malt business to earnings.

"The aim of the acquisition of United Malt Holdings was to reduce earnings volatility,'' Mr Wilton said.

"This was successfully achieved with the A$58 million contribution to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation from malt in line with expectations.''

GrainCorp’s malt business, the former world’s fourth-largest maltster United Malt Holdings Group, has production facilities in Australia, Britain, the US and Canada. The takeover of United Malt Holdings was concluded on November 13 last year.

Malt sales volumes from acquisition stood at 374,000 tonnes, in line with expectations, it is reported.

Malt related transaction costs amounted to A$62.8 mln.

The revenue from the ...More Info

World 2010 barley production is forecast to decrease by 4%, to 141.3 mln tons (147.8 mln in 2009), the IGC said in its May report.

Plantings are expected to decline by 2%, with reductions in the EU and the CIS only partly offset by a rise in Near East Asia.

Spring planting in the EU is completed, except for parts of Scandinavia. The total barley area is expected to drop by about 9%, to 12.7 mln ha. (13.9 mln ha in 2009), many producers having switched to more profitable wheat and rapeseed. However, some northern EU States replanted winter-damaged wheat fields with spring barley, it is reported.

Assuming average yields match last year’s level of 4.4 tons/ha, EU barley production is forecast to be 9% lower, at 56.4 mln tons (61.8 mln).

Spring barley planting is well advanced in Russia with no major problems reported. Total plantings are expected to be lower in favour of more profitable wheat. However, yields are expected to exceed last year’s and the production is forecast to be almost unchanged, at 18.0 mln tons (17.9 mln).

In western Canada, cold and wet weather continued to delay planting in the first half of May, when conditions improved. The area is ...More Info

The CWB’s May 2010 Pool Return Outlook (PRO) for the 2009-10 crop year left malting and feed barley values unchanged from the March PRO.

The value of select two-row malting barley is C$209/tonne, that of select six-row barley – C$191/tonne. The value of feed barley Pool B is C$143/tonne, the CWB said.

Demand for malting barley remains fairly well covered for the remainder of the marketing year. Additional offshore demand will face stiff EU competition, given the dual reality of ample EU supply and the fact that the depreciation of the euro has enhanced EU export competiveness. World supply remains relatively comfortable, given successive years with favourable malt barley quality results. In fact, the 2009-10 malting barley supply will stretch well into 2010-11, the CWB commented.

The values of the malting barley of the 2010-11 crop year are up C$4 (C$204/tonne for two-row, C$186/tonne for six-row barley) and feed barley remains unchanged (C$143/tonne).

PRO Commentary 2010-11 crop year

Feed barley

Northern Hemisphere barley planting continues on normal pace. Global ending stocks are forecast to decrease year-on-year by 3.5 million tonnes, due mostly to lower production as total usage is forecast to increase by less than one million tonnes. Feed barley will remain part of a broader feed ...More Info

D. Evan Evans, Robert Dambergs, David Ratkowsky, Chengdao Li, Stefan Harasymow, Sophia Roumeliotis and Jason K. Eglinton

J. Inst. Brew. 116(1), 86–96, 2010
ABSTRACT
Prediction of malt fermentability (apparent attenuation limit –AAL) by measurement of the diastatic power enzymes (DPE), alpha-amylase, total limit dextrinase, total beta-amylase, beta-amylase thermostability, and the Kolbach index (KI or free amino nitrogen – FAN) is superior to the conventional use of diastatic power (DP) alone. The thermostability of beta-amylase is known to be an important factor in determining fermentability, thus the thermostability of the other relatively thermolabile enzyme, limit dextrinase, was investigated to determine if it was also useful in predicting fermentability. To facilitate this aim, methods were developed for a rapid and cost efficient assay of both beta-amylase and limit dextrinase thermostability. Internationally important Australian and international malting varieties were compared for their total limit dextrinase and beta-amylase activity and thermostability. Interestingly, the level of limit dextrinase thermostability was observed to be inversely correlated with total limit dextrinase activity. The prediction of malt fermentability was achieved by both forward step-wise multi-linear regression (MLR) and the partial least squares (PLS) multivariate model development methods. Both methods produced similar identifications of the parameters predicting wort fermentability at similar levels of predictive power. Both models were substantially better at predicting fermentability than the traditional use of DP on its own. The emphasis of this study was on the identification of predictive factors that can be consistently used in models to predict fermentability, because the model parameter estimates will subtly vary depending on mashing conditions, yeast strain/fermentation conditions and malt source. The application of these multivariate model development methods (PLS and MLR) enabled the identification of further potential fermentability predicting factors. The analyses divided the predictive parameters into those defined by DP enzymes and those associated with modification (KI, FAN, fine/coarse difference, wort beta-glucan and friability). Surprisingly, limit dextrinase thermostability was not a substantial predictor of fermentability, presumably due to its negative correlation with total limit dextrinase activity. The application of these insights in the malting and brewing industries is expected to result in substantial improvements in brewing consistency and enable more specific quality targets for barley breeder’s progeny selection cut-off limits to be more precisely defined. Key words: barley, diastatic power enzymes, fermentability, malt, multiple linear regression, partial least squares. Load full article, 8 pages, 1103 kb , PDF file