ThaiBev to buy 40 per cent of Sabeco

February 05, 2015 | 17:00

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Thai Beverage (ThaiBev), owned by Thailand’s third richest man Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi, made a $1 billion offer to buy a 40 per cent stake in Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Joint Stock Company (Sabeco), according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

Sabeco, which owns popular brands like 333 and Saigon Beer, holds a 46 per cent share of Vietnam’s beer market, according to Euromonitor International.

ThaiBev’s offer was set at the price of VND80.000 ($3.8) a share, 60 per cent higher than the market price.

The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) currently owns 89.6 per cent and Heineken holds about 5 per cent of Sabeco’s total share volume. Like ThaiBev, Heineken also wants to become a strategic shareholder.

According to WSJ, Singha Corporation Co., Ltd, another Thai beer and beverage company also expressed its interest in Sabeco. However, no official information on this has been released yet.

In the first nine months of 2014, the company earned net profit of VND2.7 trillion ($128 million), a 23 per cent increase on year.

Beer consumption in Vietnam is growing rapidly. According to the statistics of the MoIT for the year of 2014, a total volume of 3.2 billion litres left the shelves, signifying an 8 per cent increase on year. Euromonitor International has forecast that the figure would rise 9 per cent to 3.88 billion litres this year.

ThaiBev’s interest in Sabeco follows the failure to capture a Myanmar brewer by another of Charoen’s companies, Fraser & Neave Ltd.

By By Kim Oanh

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