Last year's beer market boom has revived the appetite of international brewers for acquisitions in Romania. SAB Miller, the world's third-largest brewer, owner of the Ursus and Timisoreana brands on the Romanian market, is in advanced talks to buy Aurora Brasov, one of Romania's main independent brewers, according to market sources.
The transaction is estimated at 25-30 million dollars.
Should it complete the acquisition negotiations, SAB Miller would regain its second-leading position on the Romanian market, with a share revolving around 20%, outgrowing Belgian group Interbrew - the world leader.
SAB Miller already owns four beer plants in Romania (Ursus Cluj, Vulturul Buzau, Pitber Pitesti and Bere Timisoreana), having made the last acquisition in 2001, when it bought Bere Timiosoreana, then the largest independent brewer.
Aurora Brasov is held by managers and employers, having been privatised in 1995. The company is among the last attractive acquisition opportunities for the international groups, and has been "wooed" by most of the big players in the past few years. The company's main competitive edges are the consumer loyalty to the Aurora and Ciucas brands and its top-notch technological installations (as it has invested some 30 million dollars in the past decade).
Aurora Brasov was among last year's best-performing companies, having posted a 26.8% sales growth, up to 664,000 hectolitres, which pushed its market share up to 5.2 percent.
Octavian Buzoianu, corporate affairs director with SAB Miller Romania, and Horia Mihaila, chairman of Aurora Brasov, would not comment on information pertaining to the deal.
However, SAB Miller officials did announce at the end of last year that they had a "big" surprise in store for their competitors in 2004.
The talks between SAB Miller and Aurora shareholders have been going on for almost six months, and the transaction may be closed before the summer, the quoted sources said.
The potential acquisition of Aurora Brasov follows a wave of takeovers that was started in the mid-'90s by the international groups that entered the Romanian market. Following these takeovers, worth several hundred million dollars, Brau Union (now part of Dutch group Heineken), Interbrew, SAB Miller and Carlsberg (through Tuborg Romania) have come to account for some 70% of the Romanian beer market.
Tuborg Romania was the only one among these companies to have opted for building a new plant, instead of buying an already existing facility. Brau Unions owns seven plants, Interbrew holds three, whereas SAB Miller has four.
The 1995-1997 surge of takeovers had stopped in 2001-2002 because of the market decline and the lower number of acquisition opportunities.
At the end of 2003, the Romanian market only had three independent brewers with over 2% market share left, besides Aurora: Bere Mures (6.5% market share), National Beer Holding (2.9%) and Bermas Suceava (2.8%).
laurentiu.ispir@zf.ro
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