Beer roulette

20 August 2012 By Wayne Arnold

The Dutch brewer blinked after a Bangkok beer family threatened to block it from full ownership of the Singapore brewery. Heineken raised its bid to $4.46 bln. The Thais could try for still more, but risk a devastating loss if Heineken balks. They’d be savvy to cash in now.

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Fraser and Neave’s board have accepted Heineken’s latest offer of S$53 ($42) per share for its stake in Asia Pacific Breweries, according to a press release issued by Heineken on Aug. 17. The Dutch brewer said that this is their final offer, according to the statement.
F&N’s board will convene an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders so that they can consider the proposal. The proposed transaction requires at least 50 percent agreement among the shareholders. The board has already agreed to pay Heineken a S$56 million break fee if the deal is not completed as proposed within 120 days.
Kindest Place Groups, a company owned by the son-in-law of Thai billionaire Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, on Aug. 7 made a surprise counter-offer of S$55 a share to buy Fraser and Neave’s 7.3 percent stake in Asia Pacific Breweries, S$5 above a bid made by Heineken on July 20 for the 58 percent of the company it does not own. Fraser & Neave’s board said Aug. 3 that it accepted Heineken’s S$5.1 billion offer and has recommended shareholders accept it.
Heineken owns a 9.5 percent stake in Asia Pacific Breweries, or APB, as well as half of a joint venture with Fraser & Neave that in turn owns 64.8 percent of APB. Charoen’s company ThaiBev last month bought a 24 percent stake in Fraser & Neave from Singapore bank OCBC and the family that controls it. At the same time, Kindest Place bought the bank’s roughly 8 percent stake in APB.

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