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Holsten, Germany's largest brewer, has sounded the opening fanfare for the next round of consolidation in Germany's fragmented beer market when it said it was looking for a partner with financial firepower, according to Financial Times. Hamburg-based Holsten, whose market value has doubled on takeover speculation this year, said it was forced to participate in the frantic market consolidation to avoid becoming marginalised. It said it aimed at reaching a 20 per cent market share in Germany. "We cannot afford to just stand by and look at the things happening around us," said Andreas Rost, chief executive of Holsten.mShares in Holsten rose 18.6 % to €40.30 on Monday.

Interbrew, the Belgian brewer, last year entered the German market with its €1.8bn ($2.01bn) purchase of Beck's and a fragmented market of 1,200 breweries remains attractive for other global leaders such as Heineken, SABMiller and Anheuser Busch. Mr Rost said the decision to search for a partner resulted from talks with Christian Eisenbeiss, a US-based investor whose family has held a 48 per cent in the company for three generations. He said Mr Eisenbeiss had given the go-ahead for the move. "We had intensive talks whether we would be able to raise enough cash in the short term to play a leading role in the consolidation process."

Mr Rost said Holsten was eyeing to spend up to €300m to buy domestic and international brewers. Holsten is widely considered a quality asset because it would give its new owner the right to distribute Foster's in Germany. Last week, Brau und Brunner, itself majority-owned by HVB, the German bank, bought Tucher, a medium-sized German brewer. Also, HVB pledged to sell Brau & Brunnen by year-end.

Since 1991, German per capita beer consumption has dropped 15 % to 121 litres a year and in 2001 wine topped beer as the drink Germans spent most money on.


18 July, 2003