Heineken N.V. (HEINEKEN) announces that, following United Breweries Limited’s (UBL) annual general meeting on 29 July 2021, it has obtained control of UBL in India. This follows HEINEKEN’s recent acquisition of additional ordinary shares in UBL on 23 June 2021, taking its shareholding in UBL from 46.5% to 61.5%.
Dolf van den Brink, Chairman of the Executive Board / CEO:
UBL has a proud history dating back more than a century as an influential shaper of the beer industry in India. It built its position as the undisputed market leader in India with a strong network of breweries across the country and a fantastic portfolio led by its iconic Kingfisher brand family, complemented more recently by a strong HEINEKEN international brand portfolio. We are honoured to build on this legacy and look forward to working with our colleagues at UBL to continue to win in the market, delight consumers and customers and unlock future growth.
India offers an exciting long-term growth opportunity as per capita beer consumption is low at 2 litres per annum. Its growing population of nearly 1.4 billion people includes a strong emerging middle class, enabling further premiumisation. UBL will be a top HEINEKEN operating company and Kingfisher a top 5 global brand.
HEINEKEN expects the consolidation of UBL will have a small accretive effect on EPS (beia) and a dilutive effect on operating profit margin (beia).
By Heineken, Press Release
Source: theheinekencompany.com
Ferrero North America has opened its new Kinder Bueno production facility in Bloomington, Illinois, US. The expansion, which is the result of a $214 million investment, was first announced in November 2022 and has created around 200 new jobs and is set to drive Ferrero’s market expansion.
Chiquita Brands – in collaboration with KeyGene, MusaRadix and Wageningen University and Research – has unveiled a new banana hybrid named ‘Yelloway One’. This variety is engineered to resist Tropical Race 4 (TR4) and show partial resistance to Black Sigatoka, two fungal diseases that pose severe threats to global banana production.
PepsiCo is planning to acquire packaged food business Siete Foods in a US$1.2 billion deal to “bring a rich, new aspect” to its portfolio. The move will add Mexican-American foods like tortillas, salsas, seasonings, sauces, cookies and snacks to PepsiCo’s range of products.