BBAG Austrians fill their mugs with another three breweries

Austrian Group BBAG, which owns, among others, the Silva, Golden Brau and Kaiser brands, has acquired from Brewery Holding Ltd. three more Romanian breweries. Following this acquisition, BBAG doubled its share to 36%, on a Romanian beer market evaluated between 500 and 600 million dollars.

The transaction was the most substantial sale of a venture capital investment concluded in Romania so far.

Analysts estimate that the Romanian market will become by 2005 the second largest market in Central and Eastern Europe, after Poland.

BBAG took over 98.18% of Bere Miercurea-Ciuc (the Ciuc brand) share capital, 91.83% of Grivita International (the Gambrinus brand) and 75.74% of Haber International SA (the Haber brand). Company’s managers declined to specify the total value of the transaction. Analysts estimate that the value of the transaction was quite high, amounting to over 60 million dollars.

Brewery Holding Limited, which is at present the largest group of breweries in Romania, was founded in 1997 by venture capital funds Advent International Plc and East European Jupiter Fund.

“Starting from a market share of only 4%, Brewery Holdings has organically grown through acquisitions, and became the market leader in Romania in less than three years, Chris Mruck, a manager at Advent International, stated. He says that Brewery Holding made investments worth over 40 million dollars in Romania.

BBAG estimates that this year the three breweries will register sales standing at 2.4 million hectolitres, triggering turnover worth 83.5 million dollars.

“We are about to become a leader on the Central European beer market. The acquisition of Ciuc, Grivita and Haber breweries is an important step for us. Our final objective is to efficiently place our international beer brands on the Romanian market, which is one of the most attractive markets in Central Europe,” yesterday stated Karl Bueche, BBAG chairman, during the press conference announcing the acquisition.

Beside the three recently acquired breweries, Brau-Union is a majority shareholder in another four Romanian breweries: Arbema Arad, Malbera Constanta, Bere Craiova and Silva Reghin.

BBAG is a distributor in Romania of national brands Kaiser, Silva and Golden Brau. “Recent acquisitions will bring along another four important Romanian beer brands and will complete the existent portfolio, from the geographical point of view, as well as regards presence on market segments,” says Bueche.

The new brands acquired by Brau-Union are Ciuc, which is positioned within the Premium brands segment, Gambrinus, which is included within the consumption segment and Hategana and Harghita regional brands that are to cover smaller price segments.