E-Malt.com News article: 3420

USA: Adolph Coors Co. and Canada's Molson Inc. could together become the third-largest beer maker in North America if the deal is finally approved by the shareholders. The deal would create a company with annual revenue of about $6 billion (U.S.), putting it behind only Anheuser-Busch and SAB Miller as the largest beer companies in North America.

The London Free Press announced on October 5 that the U.S. government has cleared the merger of the two companies, sending the deal to shareholders for final approval. The Federal Trade Commission said on October 5 that regulators suspended the 30-day waiting period for antitrust investigations and are allowing the transaction to move ahead. FTC spokesman Mitch Katz said no antitrust problems were found with the merger, so the full 30-day wait was not necessary.

In announcing the merger deal in July, the companies said the new company will be known as Molson Coors Brewing Co. and will market such brands as Coors Original and Coors Light, Molson Canadian, Keystone and Carling. Golden, Colo.-based Coors is the third-biggest U.S. brewer, while Montreal-based Molson is neck-and-neck with Labatt Brewing as Canada's top beer maker.

Molson has tentatively scheduled a shareholder vote for the week of Dec. 13 on its proposed combination with Coors. Last Friday, Molson's chief executive insisted that the brewer's operations in Brazil are strong, even though the company had just warned that the value of Brazil division will likely be written down by $200 million. "We're not back on track as soon as we thought we'd be," Dan O'Neill admitted at an investor conference, referring to the Brazil Kaiser brewery division. "But I do think there's upside, there's momentum ... I think it's a lot more positive than the numbers are currently reflecting."


10 October, 2004