Heineken buys into China's biggest beer company 喜力中国并入华润啤酒

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Heineken is buying a 40 per cent stake in the parent of China’s largest beer company in a multibillion-dollar bet it can challenge arch-rival AB InBev, the Budweiser maker that is by far the leading foreign brewer in the world’s biggest beer market.

The $3.1bn investment — which would give Heineken a stake in CRH (Beer) Ltd, which controls CR Beer — comes as the Dutch brewer has struggled in China. It reported volume growth of about 1% in the first half of 2018, compared with AB InBev’s 3%. Its China business is close to break-even but still loss making.

Heineken, which has only a 0.5 per cent share by volume of the Chinese beer market, would merge its own China operations with CR Beer-owned Snow Breweries, brewer of the world’s top-selling beer by volume, Snow. AB InBev has 16 per cent of the Chinese market.

CR Beer is a unit of China Resources, a sprawling state-run conglomerate. Heineken will end up with an indirect 21% stake in the brewer, which will be given a licence for the Heineken brand.

China accounted for $83.3bn in beer sales last year, but volumes have been falling since 2014 as consumers switch to alternatives such as wine, meaning growth can only come from selling higher-end brews as tastes shift towards the premium end of the market.

Jean-François van Boxmeer, chief executive of Heineken, said CR Beer is “everywhere in the country, but they lack an international premium beer”, making the Chinese group’s distribution network and Heineken’s brands a good match.

“They have what we don’t have and we have what they don’t have, so it’s a win-win situation,” he added.

CR Beer chief executive Hou Xiaohai said the companies’ “long-term goal is to gain a dominant position in China’s high-end beer market . . . We plan to catch up with our competitors in the next five to 10 years.”

Cartons of Heineken beer on the production line at a factory in Jiaxing city, Zhejiang province

Analysts were sceptical whether Heineken could make up ground on Budweiser in the short term, even with CR Beer’s help. Euan McLeish, analyst at Bernstein, said quick gains would be limited by Heineken’s higher price, which is at a 25-30 per cent premium to Budweiser, a gap CR Beer said it intended to maintain.

“Heineken are effectively exchanging a small lossmaking wholly owned business for an expensive long-dated option and a 20 per cent stake in the CRBH dividend stream,” said Mr McLeish.

As part of the deal, CRE will buy a 0.9% stake in Heineken for €464m and Heineken will potentially use its international network to sell Snow.

Some partnerships between foreign brewers and large Chinese beer groups have struggled. Japan’s Asahi sold its 20% stake in China’s Tsingtao — the country’s second-biggest brewer by volume — in December after years of being frustrated in its attempts to push its partner towards higher-end beers.

Cans of Snow Beer are displayed on a shelf at a supermarket in Beijing

“CR are the biggest, and they are state-owned so they have a lot of government resources compared to other companies,” said Zhu Danpeng, and independent industry analyst. But he added that “CR doesn’t have experience with premium beer”. Snow has been hit by the shift to higher-end brews.

China Resources bought the 49 per cent stake in Snow Breweries from SABMiller, its previous foreign partner. SABMiller sold its Snow stake to get regulatory clearance to merge with AB InBev in 2016, creating the world’s largest beer company.

Mr Zhu said the fight for China’s premium beer market will become a three-horse race among CR Beer, AB InBev and Carlsberg, which has a 5 per cent share of the Chinese market by volume.

Shares in CR Beer, China Resources’ Hong Kong-listed brewery unit, jumped as much as 10.4% in morning trading in Hong Kong following the announcement of the deal but the gains then reversed, with the stock down 1 per cent at the close of trade.

巨头喜力243.5亿港币入股华润啤酒集团,喜力中国并入华润啤酒

全球啤酒巨头喜力成为华润雪花的股东，出资243.5亿港币入股华润集团（啤酒）有限公司40%的股权。

这样，华润雪花迎来二股东喜力集团。

走了SAB米勒，现在又来了喜力集团。

8月3日早晨，华润啤酒发布公告，控股股东華潤集團(啤酒)有限公司（CBL）与喜力集团达成协议，喜力集团以约243.5亿港元的总现金收购CBL股本40%(按扩股和稀释后的比例)的新CBL股份;及华润创业以约4.63亿欧元的总现金对价购买约520万股Heineken N.V.的库藏股，相当于0.9%股权。

喜力将收购华润集团（啤酒）有限公司40%的股权，而华润创业则持有其余60%的股权。双方将为此签订股东协议。华润集团（啤酒）有限公司持有华润啤酒（控股）有限公司51.67%的控股权，后者在香港联合交易所主板上市并在中国经营啤酒业务。

该交易完成后，喜力将实际获得华润啤酒（控股）有限公司20.67%的有效股权收益（见下图股东结构概览），并取得华润集团（啤酒）有限公司的董事会席位以及对华润啤酒（控股）有限公司董事会的提名权。

喜力在公告中称表示，作为战略合作的一个组成部分，喜力中国区目前的业务将与华润啤酒的业务合并，喜力将通过品牌许可协议授权华润啤酒在华长期使用喜力® 品牌。喜力与华润完美匹配，旨在赢取迅猛增长的中国高端啤酒市场。

华润啤酒称，华润创业将购入喜力集团公司520万份的库存股（相当于喜力集团公司0.9%的股权）。总购入价为4.64亿欧元，每股计价为88.66欧元。

通过股权转让交易，喜力中国区的业务包括三家酒厂将与华润雪花业务进行合并，整体价值为24 亿港元。

以上几项交易合计为喜力19.48 亿欧元的净投资额（依目前汇率计算）。

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Business Tianjin 2018 August Issue

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