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Carlsberg, which is now a big shareholder of Habeco, wants to remap the Vietnamese beer market if it can acquire more Habeco shares.
The Danish brewer has been waiting one decade in Vietnam to implement the plan. Cees ‘T Hart, CEO and President of Carlsberg, told Bloomberg recently it wanted to have a higher stake percentage in Habeco once the government equitizes the brewer.
He said Carlsberg is negotiating the stake increase in Habeco, emphasizing that being a Habeco shareholder, Carlsberg has priority in buying Habeco shares.
Vietnam is now among the top 10 beer markets in the world in terms of consumption volume. Vietnamese drank 4 billion liters of beer in 2017.
The competition in the vast market is getting more cutthroat. Being the leader in the market with the output of 1.38 billion liters, Sabeco has seen its growth slowing down.
Meanwhile, Heineken has for the first time surpassed Habeco to jump to the second position.
Analysts say that the signs of Vietnamese brewers such as Sabeco and Habeco losing their market shares to Heineken and Carlsberg are getting clearer.
Will Sabeco, with the presence of ThaiBev, become more competitive in the race with Heineken, Habeco and Carlsberg?
The Thai investor paid a high price to acquire Sabeco, VND320,000 per share, or three times higher than the price of one year ago when Sabeco began listing shares on the bourse.
This shows that ThaiBev understands the value of the 140-year history of Sabeco and the Vietnamese market in the future.
In 1991, with a joint venture with Carlsberg, ThaiBev had a strong lever to oust Singha. However, when it reached 60% of market share, ThaiBev stopped the joint venture.
In Vietnam, analysts said, ThaiBev and Carlsberg are opponents and ThaiBev, which now holds Sabeco, will scramble for the rival’s market share. ThaiBev will also try to increase the presence of its Chang beer in Vietnam.
ThaiBev’s CEO Thapana Sirivadhanabhakdi told the Bangkok Post that the conglomerate spent 2 billion baht in 2017 to brand Chang beer, soda and drinks.
It related news, The government will raise the special consumption tax on beer to 65% this year from 60% last year, according to the Vietnam Beer Alcohol Beverage Association.