China: SABMiller considering more acquisitions in China
SABMiller, the second-largest brewery in the world, is considering more acquisitions in China as it struggles to sell beer profitably to a country with about 20 % too much capacity, China View announced on September 13.
SABMiller’s 38 breweries have about 13 % of the Chinese beer market the world's largest, with annual sales of 270 million hectoliters. Seven of these breweries were bought in 2004. SABMiller is now looking to buy more, speeding consolidation of a fractured, margin-squeezed market.
Andre Parker, managing director of SABMiller's Africa and Asia region, said: "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". Last year, it lost a fight with Budweiser-brewer Anheuser-Busch for China's number-four brewer Harbin. Parker claimed that SABMiller preferred to take expansion cautiously, and not pay above the odds in an oversupplied market.
"Brewers' prices in China are today still woefully low," the South African executive said while visiting Shanghai, adding the situation should improve as smaller breweries close or merge.
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