SABMiller is set to report its first-half results tomorrow (3 November). Here, just-drinks takes a look at the highs and lows for company in the three months to the end of September.
- The brewer will be hoping for a healthy set of figures for its second quarter, with the spotlight set to fall on SABMiller’s country of origin, which hosted the FIFA World Cup Finals in June and July.
- In early-July, SABMiller began construction of a research facility in the UK. The site, which should be completed by July next year, will house a complete pilot brewery.
- The company saw its row with Diageo’s East African Breweries (EABL)in Tanzania come to an end in August. The legal argument over EABL’s attempts to acquire a stake in Serengeti Breweries while also holding 20% stake of SABMiller-owned Tanzania Breweries, closed when Tanzania’s competition watchdog gave EABL the green light. Diageo and SABMiller agreed to settle their dispute in February.
- Also in August, SABMiller’s Mexican subsidiary, Miller Trading Company, filed a complaint in the country over exclusive supply deals. The complaint to Mexico’s antitrust body, Cofeco, was played down by analysts, who said that that exclusivity contracts were “entrenched” in Mexico’s market culture.
- The brewer was itself the subject of an investigation in August. In South Africa, SABMiller has been accused of abuses of competition law in the country. A proposed settlement of the charge by the company was rejected in the summer, as a tribunal started its proceedings. SABMiller said at the time that “we have consistently operated in a way that is pro-consumer and pro-competitive”.
- Towards the end of August, speculation suggested that SABMiller was lining up a move for Foster’s Group’s Australian brewing unit, Carlton & United Breweries(CUB). A report in the UK Sunday Times claimed that a bid in the region of GBP7bn (US$10.9bn) would be forthcoming, but no offer has since materialised. CEO Graham Mackay confirmed in September, however, that the brewer had taken a look at CUB. “You would have expected us to have had a look at Foster’s,” he told the Wall Street Journal.
- Finally, just after SABMiller’s Q2 ended, South African drinks firm Castel was moved to quell speculation that it was in talks with the brewer over a possible purchase of Castel’s beer division, Les Brasseries & Glacieres Internationale (BGI). SABMiller already owns a 20% stake in BGI.