By Canisius Mushibwe
The renowned brewing company, Heineken, is set to acquire a stake in South Africa and Namibia’s brewing companies in a venture valued at about US $4.6 billion.
The Dutch brewing giant plans to buy South Africa’s Distell and Namibia Breweries in one combined deal with the aim to create a regional beverage champion.
Heineken’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dolf van den Brink said in a statement on Monday that they are excited to bring three strong business brands to enhance the Southern regions beverages.
“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,” Van den Brink said.
Heineken’s CEO Van den Brink
Distell CEO Richard Rushton said the deal will pave way for a formidable diverse beverage company in Africa.
“It [the deal] has the potential to leverage the strength of Heineken’s global footprint with our leading brands to create a formidable, diverse beverage company for Africa,” Rushton said.
Distell CEO Richard Rushton
Heineken is one of the world’s best-performing brewers only second to rivals Belgian-Brazilian company, AB InBev – who have dominated the market in the region for quite some time after taking over South African breweries in 2016.
The Belgian-Brazilian giant currently enjoys approximately 80 per cent of the South African beer market.
