SABMiller

SABMiller plc

File:SABMiller.svg
Type	Public limited company
Traded as	LSE: SAB, JSE: SAB
Industry	Brewing, beverage
Founded	February 8, 1895 (1895-02-08)
Headquarters	London, England
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Alan Clark (CEO)
Revenue	US$ 22.311 billion (2014)
Operating income	US$ 4.242 billion (2014)
Net income	US$ 3.650 billion (2014)
Number of employees	70,000 (2014)
Subsidiaries	Bavaria Brewery Foster's Group Kompania Piwowarska Miller Brewing Company South African Breweries Peroni Brewery Pilsner Urquell Brewery
Website	www.sabmiller.com

SABMiller plc (LSE: SAB, JSE: SAB) is a multinational brewing and beverage company headquartered in London, England. It is the world's second-largest brewer measured by revenues (after the American-Belgian-Brazilian Anheuser-Busch InBev) and is also a major bottler of Coca-Cola. Its brands include Fosters, Grolsch, Miller, Peroni and Pilsner Urquell. It has operations in 80 countries world-wide and in 2009 sold around 21 billion litres of beverages.

SABMiller's origins date back to the foundation of South African Breweries in 1895 as to serve a growing market of miners and prospectors in and around Johannesburg. Two years later, it became the first industrial company to list on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. From the early 1990s onwards, the company increasingly expanded internationally, making several acquisitions in both emerging and developed markets. In 1999, it formed a new UK-based holding company, SAB plc, and moved its primary listing to London. In May 2002, SAB plc acquired Miller Brewing, forming SABMiller plc.

SABMiller has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It has a market capitalisation of approximately £42 billion as of 24 October 2015, the 6th-largest of any company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange. It has a secondary listing on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

In October 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced plans to acquire SABMiller for £69 billion ($104 billion).

History

The origins of the company date back to the foundation of South African Breweries in 1895 in South Africa. For many decades, the operations of South African Breweries were mainly limited to southern Africa, where it had established a dominant position in the market, until 1990 when it began investing in Europe.

In 1999, after listing on the London Stock Exchange to raise capital for acquisitions, the group purchased the Miller Brewing Company in North America from the Altria Group in 2002, and changed its name to SABMiller.

Following this, the group's next major acquisition was of a major interest in Bavaria S. A., South America's second largest brewer and owner of the Aguila and Club Colombia brands in 2005.

The company became engaged in the hostile takeover of Fosters in August 2011, and in September 2011 the board of Foster's agreed to a takeover bid valuing the company at A$9.9bn (US$10.2bn; £6.5bn). The deal was completed by the end of 2011, but excluded the Foster's lager brand in the UK and Europe, where it is owned by Heineken.

In November 2011, SABMiller launched Impala Cervejas in Africa, the first commercially produced cassava beer, although Africans have been making cassava home brews for generations. The taste is described as "somewhat bitter, somewhat tangy, not sweet".

In 2013, the company joined leading alcohol producers as part of a producers' commitments to reducing harmful drinking.

In July 2014, the company announced it was divesting its 39.6% stake in casino and hotel group Tsogo Sun Holdings Limited through institutional share placements and a partial buy-back from Tsogo Sun. SABMiller's stake at the time was valued at approximately ZAR11.7 billion (US$1.09 billion).

In September 2014, the company made an unsuccessful attempt to acquire a controlling stake in Dutch rival Heineken International, a move Bloomberg states was part of SABMiller's strategy to protect itself from a potential takeover bid from Anheuser-Busch InBev.

On 27 November 2014, it was announced that SABMiller, The Coca-Cola Company and Gutsche Family Investments had agreed to combine the bottling operations of their non-alcoholic ready-to-drink beverages businesses in Southern and East Africa. The new bottler, Coca-Cola Beverages Africa, will serve 12 high-growth countries accounting for approximately 40 percent of all Coca-Cola beverage volumes in Africa. SABMiller will hold 57% shareholding in the proposed venture.

In May 2015, SABMiller announced it would acquire British brewery company Meantime Brewing for an undisclosed fee.

On 16 September 2015, Anheuser-Busch InBev made another acquisition bid for SABMiller. This deal would unite the world's two biggest beermakers and control about half the industry's profit. The deal however has to go through several regulatory hurdles which would require certain operations to be spun off the group. A deal was announced on 13 October 2015.

Operations

SABMiller has grown from its original South African base into a global company with operations in both developed markets and in emerging economies such as Eastern Europe, China and India. It is one of the world's largest brewers, with brewing interests and distribution agreements across six continents. Its worldwide portfolio of brands includes premium international beers such as Pilsner Urquell, Peroni Nastro Azzurro, Miller Genuine Draft and Grolsch along with leading local brands such as Aguila, Castle, Miller Lite, Snow, and Tyskie.

Africa and Asia (ex. South Africa)

SABMiller's brewing operations in Africa span 31 countries. In China, the group's national brand in that country, Snow, is produced in partnership with China Resources Enterprise Limited, is the leading brand by volume in China. SABMiller is the second-largest brewer in India and has joint ventures in Vietnam and Australia.

Brands include: N'gola, 2M, Castle Lager, Castle Milk Stout, Eagle, Fosters, Kilimanjaro, Haywards 5000, Royal Challenge, Knock out, Indus Pride, Snow, Zorok, and White Bull.

Australia

In September 2011, the board of Foster's Group agreed to a takeover bid by SABMiller, valuing the company at A$9.9bn (US$10.2bn; £6.5bn).

Brands include: Carlton Draught, Cascade Draught (see Cascade Brewery), Foster's Lager, Melbourne Bitter, Pure Blonde, Victoria Bitter, and the Matilda Bay Brewing Company portfolio.

Europe

SABMiller's entry into the European market began in 1995 with the acquisition of Dreher in Hungary. The group’s European operations are mostly centred in the fast developing consumer markets in Central and Eastern Europe (Hungary, Romania, Poland, Czech Republic and Russia), although there are operations in Italy, France, UK, Spain and Germany where it imports its international brands. On 19 November 2007, the board of Royal Grolsch NV accepted a €816 million offer for the company by SABMiller. The takeover was completed with the delisting of Grolsch's shares on 20 March 2008.

Brands include: Pilsner Urquell, Šariš Brewery, Velkopopovický Kozel, Radegast, Nastro Azzurro, Peroni, Tyskie, Topvar, Ursus, Dreher, Grolsch, and Lech.

Latin America

SABMiller first entered the Latin American Market with the acquisition of Cerveceria Hondureña in Honduras, making the company the first international brewer to enter Central America. Since then, the group has expanded its Latin American operations into six countries, including Colombia, El Salvador, Ecuador, Panama and Peru.

Lager brands include: Isenbeck (Argentina), Aguila, Club Colombia, Costeña, Poker, Pilsen (Colombia), Cristal, Pilsen Callao, Pilsen Trujillo, Cusqueña, Arequipeña (Peru), Pilsener, Club (Ecuador), Pilsener, Regia, Suprema, Golden Light (El Salvador), Port Royal, Salva Vida, Imperial (Honduras), Atlas (Panama), and Balboa (Panama).

North America

On 9 October 2007, SABMiller and Molson Coors Brewing Company announced a joint venture to be known as MillerCoors. U.S. antitrust regulators approved the joint venture on 5 June 2008. The merger was completed on 30 June 2008 and MillerCoors began operation as a combined entity on 1 July 2008. The combined venture will be headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. Pete Coors has been named as chairman of the new company, and Molson Coors Chief Executive Leo Kiely will be the new CEO of the joint venture. Tom Long, CEO of Miller, will be appointed president and chief commercial officer. They have recently opened permanent offices in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver, Canada.

Brands include: Miller Lite, Miller Genuine Draft, Olde English 800, Milwaukee's Best, Miller Chill, Hamm's, and Leinenkugel.

The proposed merger with Anheuser Busch InBev would give the newly combined company a near monopoly on beer production in the United States, whose Federal Trade Commission poses the largest obstacle to the merger moving forward. Numerous brands would have to be spun off to receive regulatory approval.

South Africa

This is the group's most established market to date. Local subsidiary SAB Ltd's soft drink division is also the country's largest producer of products for The Coca-Cola Company.

Brands include: Castle Lager, Grolsch, Castle Milk Stout, Hansa Marzen Gold, Hansa Pilsener, Carling Black Label, Castle Lite, Redd’s, Peroni, Miller Genuine Draft, Brutal Fruit, and Sarita.

Beer

Main article: SABMiller brands

SABMiller beers on display as SABMiller World in Pilsen, Czech Republic

SABMiller beers include those classified by the company as "global beers", the flagships of SAB Miller:

• Foster's
• Pilsner Urquell
• Tyskie
• Peroni Nastro Azzurro
• Miller Genuine Draft
• Grolsch

SAB Miller also owns over 150 market-leading local brands. The company is one of the world’s largest Coca-Cola bottlers and has carbonated soft drinks bottling operations in 14 markets.

Corporate social responsibility

Environment

SABMiller runs a number of sustainable development initiatives across its companies and in the countries in which it operates. They use new lightweight bottles that use 30% less glass. The lightweight bottles are designed to not only reduce the amount of waste materials but also cut down on energy used in production and distribution reducing the company's carbon emissions. SABMiller submits to a number of third party annual reports that review the company's environmental record. The corporation provides links to such reports on their own website.

Taxation

In November 2010, the charity ActionAid published a report alleging that SABMiller has avoided paying a total of around £20 million of corporation tax in five African countries – Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania, South Africa and Zambia – and in India. SABMiller has denied these allegations.

Senior management

Name	Job Title	Division	Notes
Alan Clark	CEO	SABMiller
John Davidson	General Counsel & Group Company Secretary	SABMiller	Since 2006
Norman Adami	Chairman and Managing Director	SAB Ltd
Karl Lippert	President	SABMiller Latin America
Mark Bowman	Managing Director	SABMiller Africa
Nick Fell	Marketing Director	SABMiller
Ari Mervis	Managing Director	SABMiller Asia
Tony Van Kralingen	Director	Human Resources and Supply Chain

Board of directors

The current members of the SABMiller Board are:

• Alan Clark, chief executive officer
• Jamie Wilson, ex-chief financial officer (resigned in 2015)
• John Manser, deputy chairman and senior independent director
• Mark Armour
• Geoffrey Bible
• Dinyar Devitre
• Lesley Knox
• John Manzoni
• Miles Morland
• Dambisa Moyo
• Carlos Alejandro Pérez
• Alejandro Santo Domingo
• Helen Weir
• Howard Willard
• Trevor Manuel (replaced Cyril Ramaphosa)

See also

• Breweries

External links

• Official website
• Yahoo! – SABMiller plc Company Profile
• SABMiller loses its cheer for PIC's Molefe
• SABMiller unfazed by dual role of chief
• SABMiller-related boards still a small closed world