Danish brewing giant Carlsberg announced on June, 10 it had entered into a conditional agreement to increase its shareholding in Chongqing Brewery Co. Ltd (CBC) from 17.46% to 29.71%.

The purchase price for the 12.25% stake in CBC is RMB 40.22 per share or approximately RMB 2,385 mln (approximately DKK 2.1 bln, or $341 million) in total, Carlsberg said.

The transaction is conditional upon a number of steps and approvals by authorities and minority shareholders.

CFO Jorn Jensen said the acquisition was strategically important to Carlsberg, and though the 2.1 billion crown price was high compared with other beer deals, it was inflated by biotech assets held by Chongqing.

“Asia is becoming a more significant platform for Carlsberg,” said Michael Rasmussen, an analyst at SEB Enskilda in London with a “buy” rating on the stock. “If Chongqing is consolidated into Carlsberg, they’ll have 15 percent of volumes in that region,” meaning international competitors will have to look at other areas of the country.

CBC operates 15 breweries in China. CBC is market leader in the Chongqing province and operates in the surrounding provinces of Sichuan, Guizhou, Guangxi and Hunan and in the eastern Chinese provinces of Anhui, Zhejiang and Jiangsu.

In 2009 CBC's Chinese volumes ...More Info

Further to the announcement on 30 March 2010, Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes said on June, that it now holds 211,104,904 shares in Efes Breweries International N.V. ("EBI"), representing approximately 99.85 per cent of the entire issued share capital of the Netherlands-based company.

This follows the acquisition by Anadolu Efes of a further 167,608 EBI GDRs (equivalent to 838,040 EBI shares) at a price of $17.00 per EBI GDR in the market since the announcement on 30 March 2010 that Anadolu Efes had acquired 10,987,470 EBI GDRs (equivalent to 54,937,350 EBI shares) from a group of GDR holders.

The 11,155,078 EBI GDRs acquired by Anadolu Efes in aggregate since 30 March 2010 are now held in the form of 55,775,390 EBI shares by Anadolu Efes.

As previously indicated, as a result of holding over 95 per cent of the outstanding issued share capital of EBI, Anadolu Efes intends to acquire the remaining EBI shares (including EBI shares represented by GDRs) by means of a squeeze-out procedure in accordance with article 2:92a of the Dutch Civil Code before the Enterprise Chamber of the Court of Appeals in Amsterdam, the Netherlands ("Court").

The squeeze-out process is anticipated to take between 4 to 9 months to ...More Info

Danish brewer Carlsberg is on the look-out for further acquisitions in Asia after raising its stake in a Chinese brewer, the group's chief financial officer was quoted as saying by Reuters on June, 11.

"This is a natural extension of our growth strategy that we have voiced in the past couple of years that acquisitions will happen in Asia and particularly in China and Indochina," CFO Jorn Jensen said.

Carlsberg said it had agreed to raise its stake in China's Chongqing Brewery Co Ltd to nearly 30 percent from from 17.5 percent for about 2.1 billion crowns ($341 million) to further its Asian expansion.

Jensen said Carlsberg has a strong foothold in western China, so it will be looking eastwards for further acquisitions "though not necessarily all the way to the coast."

He added that Carlsberg was not interested in buying brewing assets held by Australia's Foster's, which recently said it would split off its beer division to focus on its wine and spirits business.

Asahi Breweries said on June, 10 its total domestic beer sales declined by 8.2% to 169,522 kl in May 2010. January – May beer sales dropped by 6.6% to 740,426 kl.

Low-malt happoshu beer saw the biggest decrease in demand – minus 32.1% in May and minus 33.7% in the first five months of this year. Sales of standard beer fell by 11.3% and 6.8% respectively, whereas new genre malt-based beer enjoyed a 25.7% growth last month and a 21.1% growth in Jan-May.

Clear Asahi was the only brand to see increase in demand both in May and in the first five months of 2010. Sales of Asahi Off dropped most, by 15.5% and 13.4% respectively.

Plzeňský Prazdroj, SABMiller's Czech subsidiary, said on June, 10 its profit before tax for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010 decreased by 1% to CZK 4.686 bln.

The company recorded income for sales of goods, the company's own products and services amounting CZK 15.411 bln, which represents a 2.5% decrease versus the previous fiscal year.

"Plzeňský Prazdroj achieved these results in the face of adverse economic conditions. The market was impacted by and significant increase in VAT and excise tax in January and by growing unemployment. This resulted in second consecutive year of declining consumption in the total malt beverage market after several years of growth. Our financial results reflect our focus on portfolio development, particularly in the Premium segment led by continued share growth of Pilsner Urquell. We managed to capitalize on the early launch of Gambrinus Excellent in the growing 11-degree beer segment. Our premium brands portfolio was further strengthened by the re-launch of Birell , extension of Frisco brand family, and more recently by the introduction of our specialty beer Master in bottles," says Doug Brodman, Managing Director of Plzeňský Prazdroj.

The financial results of the fiscal year reflect the continued investment in the development of Czech heritage brands ...More Info

Experts consider that capacity usage in the coming crop year will improve insignificantly. They are counting on 80% usage of malting barley for commercial maltsters, distiller-maltsters and part of the brewer-maltsters, an industry research note communicated earlier this month.

Excepted are the Mediterranean malt deficit countries, with a total capacity of 625,000 tonnes, which should be used 100%, and a segment of brewer-maltsters with a capacity of 1 mln tonnes, to be 100% used as well.

That would add up to a malt production of 8.0 – 8.5 mln tonnes in 2010/11, experts forecast.

Taking into account that maltsters keep extra stocks of old crop malting barley for 30 to 45 days, barley needs of crop 2010 are expected to total 9.0 to 9.5 mln tonnes.

Barley crop forecasts remain optimistic and market estimates are bearish in both USDA and IGC's latest reports. World barley crops forecast for 2010 is 141 to 143 mln tonnes, 6 mln tonnes under last year´s good crop.

Expected consumption is 143 to 145 mln tonnes, ending stocks are estimated at 38 (IGC) to 34 (USDA) mln tonnes, significantly more than the ending stocks in 2007 and 2008 (20 mln tonnes).

All over the world barley production is being reduced in favour of corn (maize) and oilseeds.

The U.S. barley crop will be 4.2 mln tonnes, 1.2% of the corn crop, experts believe.

The use of grain for production of ethanol will continue to grow, the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will speed up legislation for increased mandatory use of ethanol in the U.S. The estimate for 2010/11 is a grain usage of 138 mln tonnes for ethanol in the world, of which 127 mln tonnes of corn and 1 mln tonnes of barley.

France planted about 400 – 500,000 ha of winter malting barley, of which around 60% Cervoise variety, according to industry sources.

The crop of the varieties Esterel, Azurel, Arturio, Cartel and Vanessa could reach 800 – 900,000 tonnes, crop of Cervoise variety – up to 1.5 mln tonnes, it is forecast.

The Cervoise variety is reportedly disliked by a significant number of brewers. It is clear, however, that French winter barley besides Danish and U.K. spring barleys will be needed to safeguard domestic and export supplies.

Jan De Bruyn, Johan Vissenaekens

ABSTRACT Within the framework of traceability, quality and food safety of malting barley, a group of European Maltsters has developed a common audit-system called JOSUA. JOSUA leads to uniformity of supplier-evaluation within the malting industry. It offers clear insight in area's for improvement for the suppliers of malting barley, not only on an individual basis but also in general.
Cerevisia, 33(1) 2008 http://www.cerevisia.eu