Russia: In March 2004 SUN Interbrew Ltd. (the Group), a leading brewer in Russia and Ukraine, completed the merger of its Russian subsidiaries into one legal entity. Such new legal entity, OAO “SUN Interbrew”, comprising all the production and distribution companies of the Group in the Russian Federation, except the Bavaria Brewery, was duly registered by the Russian tax authorities on the 2nd of March 2004. SUN Interbrew Ltd. holds more than 95% of the voting shares in this new subsidiary.

SUN Interbrew Ltd. is the sole shareholder of OOO “SUN Interbrew Finance”, the legal entity which issued a RUR 2.5 billion bond - fully guaranteed by SUN Interbrew Ltd. - on the 18th of September 2003. Raiffeisenbank Austria acted as the Lead Manager of the issue.

In accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation, OAO “SUN Interbrew” has inherited all rights and obligations of the legal entities merged into OAO “SUN Interbrew”. Specifically, OAO “SUN Interbrew” assumes the obligations under the irrevocable offer of OAO “United Brewing Plants” and OAO “United Breweries SUN Interbrew” as published in the Vedomosti newspaper on the 15th of September 2003. This offer entails any holder of a bond in OOO “SUN Interbrew Finance” the right to sell such a bond at par on the 31st of August 2004 in case the issuer fails to fulfill its obligations under the put option due on the 17th of August 2004.

SUN Interbrew Limited is the second largest brewer in Russia and market leader in Ukraine, with 9 breweries in Russia and 3 in Ukraine, and its own distribution network. The Company’s main brands are Stella Artois, Beck's, Staropramen, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona and Tolstiak in Russia; and Stella Artois, Beck’s, Chernigivske, Rogan, Taller, Hetman and Yantar in Ukraine. The largest shareholders of SUN Interbrew include Interbrew, the World’s Local Brewery, and the SUN Group, an international investment management group.

SUN Interbrew is a public company, whose shares are listed in Luxembourg and traded on the Luxembourg, Frankfurt and Berlin stock exchanges.

E-malt.com, the global information source for the brewing and malting industry professionals. The bi-weekly E-malt.com Newsletters feature latest industry news, statistics in graphs and tables, world barley and malt prices, and other relevant information. Click here to get full access to E-malt.com. If you are a Castle Malting client, you can get free access to E-malt.com website and publications. Contact us for more information at marketing@castlemalting.com .