ARGENTINA: Argentine brewer Quilmes to buy back 5 mln shrs

Argentine-based brewer Quilmes Industrial SA (NYSE:LQU) said on Wednesday that its board has approved the repurchase of up to five million of its non-voting preferred shares.The amount of stock to be repurchased is equivalent to about 4.6 percent of Quinsa's capital stock, the company said in a news release in which it explained that it considered its shares to be at "an attractive price".The Quinsa preferred shares are listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American Depositary Shares. Ordinary shares are listed in Luxembourg.They were down $0.30 in Luxembourg at $7.75 at 1430 GMT.Quinsa, a Luxembourg-based holding company, controls 85 percent of Quilmes International Ltd. The remaining 15 percent is owned by Heineken NV , Europe's leading brewer.Quilmes' beer brands are market leaders in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia and it is the second-largest brewer in Chile. Quilmes also sells soft drinks and water in Argentina through a controlling interest in the largest PepsiCo Inc. (NYSE:PEP) bottler in the South American country.