Dutch brewing giant Heineken will buy a majority stake in brewers in South Africa and Namibia, companies said on Monday, creating a booze behemoth in a region currently dominated by rival Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Heineken plans to acquire South Africa’s Distell and Namibia Breweries in a combined deal valued at around $4.6 billion (£3.42bn).
“We are very excited to bring together three strong businesses to create a regional beverage champion, perfectly positioned to capture significant growth opportunities in Southern Africa,” said Heineken’s CEO Dolf van den Brink in a statement.
Distell CEO Richard Rushton sees the deal as having “the potential to leverage the strength of Heineken’s global footprint with our leading brands to create a formidable, diverse beverage company for Africa”.
Distell is Africa’s leading producer and marketer of ciders, flavoured alcoholic beverages (FABs), wines and spirits, and NBL is the beer market leader in Namibia. The deal would bring together the leading portfolios in premium beer, cider, FABs, wine, and in spirits, with iconic brands such as Heineken, Savanna, Hunters, 4th Street wine, and Amarula.
Amsterdam-based Heineken is the world’s number two brewer behind Belgian-Brazilian giant AB InBev.
In 2016, AB InBev took over South African Breweries as part of a blockbuster SABMiller buyout, and enjoys an estimated 80 percent of the beer market by volume in South Africa.
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