E-Malt.com News article: 1919

Germany's Holsten Brauerei AG abandoned its search for a buyer on December 11 as industry sources said the asking price had been too high, sending shares in the brewer sliding 22 %, according to Reuters. "The potential buyers couldn't match Holsten's price expectations," said one industry source, adding that the brands on offer had not been compelling enough to justify the sort of premiums paid recently for names such as Becks and Loewenbrau. "The German beer market is weak generally at the moment and Holsten's brands are not particularly strong," said one fund manager explaining the sale's collapse. This year's surge in Holsten's stock had made it too expensive, he added.

Management said they had ended a strategic review of the firm's ownership which had been triggered by shareholder Christian Eisenbeiss' search for a buyer of his 48 % stake in the firm. Any buyer of the Eisenbeiss stake would have had to make an offer to all Holsten shareholders, under German takeover law.

Shares in Holsten, which hit a record high of 51 euros in August, closed down 21.1 % at 26.90 euros on December 11 as disappointed investors who had been betting on consolidation in Germany's splintered beer industry dumped the stock.

A sector shake-up has been widely expected since Belgian giant Interbrew moved into the market and unseated Holsten as Germany's biggest brewer with a series of buys including the Loewenbrau and Beck's brands.

Denmark's Carlsberg, Germany's Bitburger Brauerei and U.S. giant Anheuser-Busch which makes Budweiser had all been seen as potential buyers of Holsten. The absence of other big players such as Dutch Heineken and Interbrew had also kept a lid on the prices being offered for Holsten, according to one industry source.

Holsten, whose other brands include Feldschloesschen, Koenig Pilsner and Licher, gave no further details in its statement but the sources said its exposure to a recent German law imposing a 25 cent deposit on throwaway cans had added to the uncertainty of potential buyers. Thursday's news is the latest headache for investors hoping to cash in on a wholesale industry revamp after Radeberger, the brewing arm of family-owned German food giant Dr. Oetker, announced only a modest acquisition on Wednesday.

Radeberger is taking a 50 percent stake in the brewing business of small regional rival Stuttgarter Hofbraeu. Fellow German brewer Brau und Brunnen , itself a long-touted takeover candidate, said only last week that talks over its sale to U.S. investors had collapsed.


12 December, 2003