• Japanese brewer Asahi ready to spend ‘billions’ on deals
TOKYO: Asahi Group Holdings, Japan’s largest brewer, is ready to spend “billions of dollars” on acquisitions, having spent US$11 billion over the past year to acquire beer brands across Europe from Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Asahi president Akiyoshi Koji said ‘ bolt- on’ acquisitions in Europe, including beer makers and distributors, were a priority, as the company carves out a larger slice of the overseas market to compensate for slow growth at home.
He did not specify how much he would spend and did not name potential targets.
“If there are big investment opportunities, we can make big investments,” he told Reuters in an interview.
Asahi, maker of Japan’s bestselling beer, Asahi Super Dry, seized a chunk of the European market thanks to back-to-back deals with InBev that completed earlier this year. The deals handed it brands including Peroni, Grolsch and Pilsner Urquell.
Any sizeable deal would likely rely on debt, given a cash pile that stands at just under US$740 million. But Koji said the company’s leverage was under control, indicating it could tap lenders for more - net debt to core earnings will fall to three in 2020, after rising to 4.8 after the European deals.
“That’s a normal level,” he said.
Expansion will also be organic, as the company prepares to sell Asahi Super Dry draft beer in Britain and Italy from January next year, hoping to carve out a niche as premium beer brand in Europe, and prepares for zeroalcohol sales and to sell canned cocktails, hugely popular in Japan for some time.
In Asia, global beer companies are closely watching Vietnam’s plan to sell a majority stake in beer makers Sabeco and Habeco, potentially offering a lucrative portion of the market in a young, beer-loving nation.
Koji said Asahi has been studying Sabeco but declined to comment further: “As a growth market, Vietnam is attractive, but our judgment will be based on whether the market fits our premium beer strategy,” he said.
Vietnam’s privatization has been protracted, putting off some of the international investors who initially flocked to it.
But it’s not all about acquisitions. The 65- year- old career insider who took the top job last year has also been reviewing the company’s asset portfolio, and he said minority investments remained under scrutiny.
In June, Asahi said it would sell its 20 per cent stake in Chinese brewer Tingyi-Asahi Beverages Holding Co for US$612 million. — Reuters