China Resources Beer gains more than 49% of China Snow

Post published:02/03/2016
Reading time:3 min(s) read

China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co. agreed to buy out the remaining stake in its Chinese venture with SABMiller Plc for $1.6 billion, smoothing the way for a takeover of its partner by Anheuser-Busch InBev NV. The Chinese brewer’s shares jumped.

The deal values the Snow Breweries venture, maker of the world’s best-selling beer, at 11 times 2014 net income before taxes, or about half the median 21 times earnings before interest and taxes valuation for brewery deals announced over the past 12 months, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The transaction was approved by the board and is subject to regulatory approval, China Resources said in a statement Wednesday.

Sale of the stake may help AB InBev secure Chinese antitrust approval for its acquisition of SABMiller. For China Resources, it will mean tackling the local market without an overseas partner, as beer consumption in the country is expected to grow with younger consumers increasingly migrating to high-end, foreign-brand brews.

“It will be tougher for China Resources Beer now as they have to develop their premium segment organically,” Mizuho Securities Asia Ltd. analyst Jeremy Yeo said via telephone. “Their priority now will be to accelerate consolidation within beer space in China; any other large asset that comes up, they will be ready to get it.”

Yeo had expected China Resources to pay $3.3 billion for the 49 percent stake it didn’t own, while analysts at Nomura Holdings Inc. and Sanford C. Bernstein previously estimated the stake’s value at about $5 billion.

China Resources Beer shares rose as much as 35 percent to HK$17.20, the biggest intraday jump in almost a year. The Hong Kong-listed brewer last year hived off businesses including supermarkets and food to parent China Resources Holdings Co. in order to focus on beer. The state-owned conglomerate’s units range from drugmakers to real estate, and it has sought deals globally including a failed bid for Fairchild Semiconductor International Inc.

The Snow deal is conditional on the successful acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev and is expected to close in conjunction with that merger, the Belgian beermaker said in a statement Wednesday. AB InBev said Feb. 25 it was making progress with Chinese regulators on gaining approval for it to buy London-based SABMiller, in the beer industry’s biggest-ever deal.

Beer sales in China, the world’s largest beer market by volume, are expected to rise 41 percent in the five years through 2019 to reach 683 billion yuan ($104 billion), according to a June report from research firm Euromonitor.

Snow is the world’s best-selling beer by volume, Euromonitor’s data shows. The partnership between SABMiller and China Resources, which began with two breweries in 1994, operates more than 90 operations across China, according to SABMiller’s website.

Nomura and UBS Group AG advised China Resources on the deal, along with Rothschild & Co., Citigroup Inc. and HSBC Holdings Plc. Advisers to AB Inbev on the Snow sale are Lazard and Merrill Lynch International, with Sullivan & Cromwell, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Fangda acting as legal counsel.

Tags: AB InBev, chinese beer, CR Snow, SABMiller

Beer Business #4-2021. Poland beer market analysis
20/02/2022
Current data The influence of export and import Non-alcoholic boom Output and market by value Beer prices Who can afford beer? Segmentation by price Segmentation by channels of sales Beer sales in HoReCa Segmentation by tastes Positions of major companies Kompania Piwowarska (Asahi) Grupa Żywiec (Heineken) Carlsberg Polska Van Pur Polish craft brewers Is there […]...

Beer Business #3-2021. Russian beer market. Beer market of Ukraine.
16/10/2021
In 2021 Russian breweries have not lost their consumers, it even turned out that they started drinking more beer at home and more often. The market has held the high bar of the previous season, yet now it is growing by value and polarizing by price segments. The competition in the market has been determined […]...

Beer Business #2-2021. Kazakhstan beer market: bigger, more complex and more expensive
26/07/2021
Kazakhstan beer market is still growing by volume and value. The consumers’ demands are gradually becoming more complex, there is the market polarization by price and taste segments as license, canned, strong and mild beer popularity is growing. Eye catching new products have a big impact on companies’ positions in the situation of limited advertising. […]...

Beer Business #1-2021. Ubrew – Catalogue of Ukrainian breweries
06/05/2021
The catalogue of Ukrainian breweries contains 251 producers ranging from transnational groups to craft and restaurant breweries. In the catalogue we have combined open official data, information from social networks and where possible, from brewers themselves. The previous “census” was made by us in 2011-2012. So, what has changed over the recent ten years and […]...

Beer Business #4-2020. Russia: regional beer markets
21/01/2021
In the seven regions of Russia we have analyzed: the share of companies of various scales – from federal breweries to minibreweries popularity of brands (license, national and regional); market segmentations by price; the dynamics of output, sales and prices...

Beer Business #2-2020. 2020 what’s new?
20/11/2020
Russian beer market 2020 1) The market positions of the major companies and brands in the first half of 2020; 2) Production structure – from craft to federal breweries; 3) The market segmentation by the price and package. In 2020, the roles of sale channels have changed especially at the draft beer market. The relations […]...

Beer Business #2-2020. The market of non-alcoholic beer in Russia: companies, brands and consumers
01/07/2020
Where is the non-alcoholic beer market heading to? Companies and brands. Baltika as a democratic leader. Heineken – how do you shake up the market and shove up the competitors. AB InBev Efes – premium corner. Non-alcoholic import beer. Non-alcoholic beer – Who drinks it? General conclusions. Summer beer....

Beer Business #1-2020. Russian beer producers (catalogue/database)
27/04/2020
“Catalogue of Russian Beer Producers 2020” includes 1285 businesses ranging from large subsidiaries of international companies to rather small restaurant and craft breweries. This issue has 171 more breweries compared to 2018 (155 business have been excluded and 326 have been included). Starting from 2019, FTS has been publishing data on excise payments by brewers […]...

Beer Business (Pivnoe Delo) #4-2019
09/02/2020
Dmitry Nekrasov’s Philosophy — on the Past, Present and Future of Ukrainian Brewing Industry A meeting with Dmitry Nekrasov always turns into a training course: “Introduction to brewing business“. We are talking to a clever “playing trainer“ a person that can be called a godfather of the Ukrainian craft. He has a dozen of successful […]...

Beer Business (Pivnoe Delo) #3-2019
10/11/2019
Russia: Positions of Brewing Companies The review contains an analysis of interim performance of brewers in the first half of 2019. There are rather dynamic changes behind a modest industry growth. Baltika is again experiencing a stage of volumes and market share slid due to competition with AB InBev Efes. Because of the price competition […]...