SAB in tie-up with Efes
SABMILLER is joining forces with Turkey’s Anadolu Efes to become the number two brewer in Russia in a deal that gives the London-based group a 24 per cent stake in the leading Turkish brewing group.
SABMiller, which last month agreed to buy Australian rival Foster’s for $10bn (£6.3bn), said yesterday the deal will put it behind Carlsberg in the world’s fourth largest beer market and yield cost savings of $120m a year.
Under the deal, SABMiller will transfer its Russian and Ukrainian beer business for a 24 per cent stake in Anadolu Efes, with Anadolu Group, controlled by the Turkish Yazicilar and Oxilhan families, holding 42.8 per cent, leaving a free float of just over 33 per cent following a capital increase.
The alliance will be the focus of both groups’ interests in Turkey, Russia and the former Soviet Union, central Asia and the Middle East, and will include the Turkish group’s 89 per cent share of its domestic beer market.
The deal puts an enterprise value of around $1.9bn on SABMiller’s Russian and Ukrainian business.