E-Malt.com News article: China: SABMiller targeting new acquisitions in China

SABMiller,is considering more acquisitions in China as it struggles to sell beer profitably to a country with about 20 % too much capacity, according to Reuters announced on September 12.

SABMiller compete with InBev and Anheuser-Busch Co. in the Chinese beer market, the world's largest, with annual sales of 270 million hectolitres (230 million barrels). Its 38 breweries have about 13 % of the market. Seven of those breweries were bought in 2004.

SABMiller is now looking to buy more, speeding consolidation of a factured, margin-squeezed market where hundreds of players fight to sell beer as cheaply as 12 U.S. cents for a 640 ml bottle just over a pint.

"There are one or two Chinese groups that might be for sale. We would certainly be interested, alongside, no doubt, all our other international competitors," Andre Parker, managing director of SABMiller' s Africa and Asia region, told reporters, without elaborating.

SABMiller bought three eastern Yangtze River Delta brewers from Australia's Lion Nathan Ltd. last September, giving the firm a third area to focus on along with the northern Beijing area and Sichuan in the country's southwest. It is now making a profit, though executives said income was small in comparison with the volume of beer sold.


16 September, 2005