E-Malt.com News article: 2958

Russia, Moscow: Alfa Eko, a unit of Russian private financial company Alfa Group, announced on Tuesday, July 13, it had acquired 10.4 % of the voting shares in brewer Sun Interbrew in the form of global depository receipts (GDRs). Alfa Eko said it acquired 2,896,531 voting shares of Sun Interbrew. The company has not revealed the amount of transaction, however, according to analysts, Alfa Eko paid about US$ 8.7 per share. On July 15 Alfa Group announced already it had increased its share holding in Sun Interbrew to 15% and it intends to buy more shares reaching 30% plus one share, according to Russian media.

The acquisition makes Alfa Group's Alfa Eko the third-biggest holder of voting shares in Sun Interbrew, which is the No. 2 brewer in Russia and market leader in Ukraine. "The acquisition of these shares is motivated by the group striving to occupy a serious position in the beer industry in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States," Alfa Eko said in a statement.

Alfa Eko plans to call for an extraordinary shareholders' meeting at Sun Interbrew to install one or several of its representatives on the board of directors. "Of course we will obtain places on the board of directors. We believe a Russian partner with experience of mergers and acquisitions will be useful to the company's management," Alfa Eko director Igor Baranovsky told Reuters. "We will conduct talks. We don't want to act in an unfriendly or aggressive manner."

Sun Interbrew is the Russian-Ukrainian subsidiary of Belgium's Interbrew and India's Sun Group. Belgian Interbrew controls more than 70% of the company and Indian group SUN - more than 10%. SUN Interbrew Limited is the second largest brewer in Russia and the largest brewer in Ukraine. The company is a strategic partnership between Interbrew, one of the largest brewers in the world, and the SUN Group, operating in the region since 1958, and in the beer sector of Russia and CIS since the beginning of 1990s. The company's main brands are Stella Artois®, Staropramen®, Klinskoye®, Sibirskaya Korona®, and Tolstiak® in Russia, and Stella Artois®, Chernigivske®, Rogan®, Taller® and Yantar® in Ukraine. SUN Interbrew is a public company registered in Jersey, whose shares are listed and traded on the Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Berlin exchanges. In 2003 Sun Interbrew output 16 million hl of beer and registered a total net turnover of EUR 540.3 million.

According to analysts, Alfa Eko will not be able to influence the activity of Sun Interbrew, because of the specific corporate management of the company. The analysts mentioned that the purchase of voting shares of Sun Interbrew almost coincides with the ending of validity period of the agreement between Sun and Interbrew: according to the agreement, up to July 2004, no one of the parts had the right to sell its shares.


16 July, 2004