SABMiller eyes more plant buys

SHANGHAI – SABMiller Plc., the world’s second-largest brewer, is pondering more acquisitions in China as it struggles to sell beer profitably to a country with about 20 per cent too much capacity, an executive said yesterday.

SABMiller vies with InBev and Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc.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 per cent of the market.Seven of those breweries were bought in 2004.SABMiller is now looking to buy more, speeding consolidation of a fractured, margin-squeezed market where hundreds of players fight to sell beer as cheaply as 12 US cents for a 640 ml bottle.”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,” André Parker, managing director of SABMiller’s Africa and Asia region, told reporters.Despite flat margins, foreign breweries continue to try to get into the country as other markets stagnate.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.- Nampa-ReutersInc.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 per cent of the market.Seven of those breweries were bought in 2004.SABMiller is now looking to buy more, speeding consolidation of a fractured, margin-squeezed market where hundreds of players fight to sell beer as cheaply as 12 US cents for a 640 ml bottle.”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,” André Parker, managing director of SABMiller’s Africa and Asia region, told reporters.Despite flat margins, foreign breweries continue to try to get into the country as other markets stagnate.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.- Nampa-Reuters