Heineken sets beer deal talk bubbling but owners brush off deal

With a history stretching back 150 years, Heineken describes itself as "a proud, independent global brewer". SABMiller, its bigger British rival, was left in no doubt of that sentiment after a lofty brush-off from the Dutch company, now controlled by the fourth generation of its founding family.

The disclosure that the maker of Peroni, Miller Lite and Pilsner Urquell had made a preliminary approach to Heineken to combine the world’s second- and third-largest brewers, sparked a rise in brewers’ share prices yesterday.

SABMiller's share price leapt as much as 13 per cent, boosted by a revival of rumours that Anheuser-Busch InBev, the biggest brewer, was preparing to raise money to bid for the London-based group. One person familiar with the Belgian-American brewer cooled such speculation, saying no talks over financing for SAB were taking place.

Despite the Heineken family’s well-known stance – reiterated in a statement on Sunday night that it wanted to “preserve the heritage and identity of Heineken as an independent company” – it could come under pressure from other shareholders not to reject a future approach so swiftly. Heineken is controlled by Heineken Holdings, through the latter’s 50.005 per cent stake. The family owns 51.7 per cent of Heineken Holdings, which gives it control of the brewer, but leaves 77 per cent of the share capital in the hands of non-family members.

Attractive target

Trevor Stirling, analyst at Bernstein Research, points out that a merged SABMiller-Heineken would not be without its troubles, given regulatory problems in some markets and tricky joint venture agreements. But there are also good reasons for SABMiller to regard Heineken as an attractive target.

First, it would give the British brewer the global beer brand that, alone among the big four, it lacks. Second, Heineken’s diversification to emerging markets makes it more attractive to SABMiller. Heineken now makes 60 per cent of its operating profits in emerging markets and has a 50-50 sales split between developed and emerging markets.

Third, combining with Heineken would increase SABMiller's position in Africa, especially in Nigeria, where Heineken has a market share of 65 per cent, and in Mexico, where Heineken beat SABMiller in the 2010 auction for the beer assets of Femsa, the Mexican drinks group.

Finally, the combined group would find itself on an equal footing with AB InBev, which has 21 per cent of the global beer market. (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2014)