Heineken buys Babruysk-based Syabar brewery

Heineken NV is buying the Babruysk-based Syabar brewery, the owner of Belarus' second-largest beer brand, for an undisclosed price, the foreign media reported, BelaPAN reported.

Heineken will reportedly acquire Syabar's Cypriot parent company from a consortium led by Detroit Investments Limited (Cyprus) from the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank.

Heineken said that the Belarusian beer market is showing double-digit growth, with annual consumption at almost 4.5 million hectoliters and estimated per capita consumption at 45 liters.

"Belarus is a fast-growing market, and this will give us an excellent platform from which to grow the Heineken brand as well as our imported Russian brands,'' Nico Nusmeier, the Dutch beermaker's president for central and eastern Europe, said in the statement.

The Syabar brewery has been operational since October 2005 following the reconstruction of a state-owned brewery and employs 280 staff.

The company produces the brand Bobrov, number two in the Belarus market, and the recently introduced premium brand Syabar.

Sales volume in 2007 is estimated at 600,000 hectoliters, compared to 370,000 hectoliters in 2006, with the technical production capacity at 1.1 million hectoliters with the possibility of going up to 2.1 million hectoliters.