"Heineken" and "Efes" to merge their operations in Serbia by end of June - joint venture to keep local brands

Beer manufacturers "Efes" and "Heineken" will merge their operations in Serbia by the end of June. As people in company "Efes" point out, both companies got permits for merger, they signed the stockholding contract on June 10 and it is expected that “all legal formalities” will be ended by the end of June.

In that way, the operations of "Efes’" breweries "Weifert" and "Zaječar", "Heineken’s" brewer "Brauerei MB", that is, former Brewer "Rodić", and trade company "Heineken import" will be merged.

"Heineken" will run the new company and its share in that company will be 72%, while "Efes" will own 28%.

"Efes’" breweries "Weifert" and "Zaječar" have 10% of market and produce 1.4m hl of beer per year, while brewer "Rodić", which was taken over by "Heineken" at the beginning of year 2008, has the share of 7% and production capacity of 1.5m hl.

The joint venture will have brands "Heineken", "Efes", "Amstel", "Kaiser", "Schlossgold", "MB", "Pils plus" and "Zaječarsko pivo".