TURKEY: Anadolu Efes to buy out Efes Breweries International

By just-drinks.com editorial team | 17 July 2009

Anadolu Efes has said it plans to buy out all shares that it does not already own in Efes Breweries International for around US$140m in cash.

Anadolu Efes, which has a 70.22% stake in Efes Breweries Breweries International (EBI), said today (17 July) that it plans to take full control of the brewer, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.

The Turkey-based drinks group will offer $11.1 per global depositary receipt in EBI. Each receipt represents five ordinary shares.

"The decision to make an offer has been taken considering the combination of the low liquidity of EBI GDRs, which started trading on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, the current economic and trading environment and EBI's financial leverage."

These factors, Anadolu said, would make it difficult to raise funds to expand EBI's business in its current form.

The offer will be funded by Anadolu's existing cash reserves and a EUR50m (US$70.5m) loan, which was secured on 29 June from Rabobank.

If successful, the offer will value EBI at 4.1% of Anadolu's consolidated total assets, as of fiscal 2008.

Earlier this week, Anadolu reported a 4% rise in volume sales for the first half of 2009, although tough trading in Russia saw EBI report volumes down by 4.6% for the same period.

Sectors: Beer & cider

Companies: Anadolu Efes