Vietnam: Carlsberg to bid for Vietnam’s Habeco in March or April - CEO

Carlsberg will bid for Vietnam's state-controlled brewery Habeco in March or April, the Danish brewer's chief executive was quoted as saying by Nasdaq on February 8.

Vietnam is seeking to privatize Habeco, the country's second-biggest brewery, by selling its 82 percent stake. Carlsberg, which already owns 17 percent of the company, holds priority purchase rights for a 60 percent stake for the company.

"We are very keen in the process of privatization to acquire Habeco," Carlsberg Chief Executive Cees 't Hart told Reuters in an interview.

The Vietnamese government said in October it would announce the results of negotiations on its priority purchase rights with Carlsberg by the end of that month. It was not clear why the process has been drawn out.

"So far we have not been able to make a bid," Hart said, adding that he expects to submit a bid in March or April.

There was also uncertainty over whether the Vietnamese government will abide by Carlsberg's first right of refusal, he said.

"We have the first right of refusal, but if they neglect that for any reason, which we do not have any signal that they will, then we might not be able to buy it," Hart said.

With a young, beer-loving population the country is among Asia's biggest consumers of the beverage, putting it on the radar of international brewers. Vietnam's beer market grew at an average compound annual rate of 7 percent from 1999 to 2015 and touched about 4 billion litres in 2016. Growth is anticipated at around 4 percent till 2021, data from research firm Canadean quoted by investment bank Liberum showed.

Kirin Holdings, Asahi Group Holdings, Thai Beverage and Heineken and Anheuser Busch Inbev SA are among around 20 investors who have expressed interest in the beer stake sales by the government.

The stock price of Habeco, formally Hanoi Beer Alcohol and Beverage Joint Stock Corp, soared when a limited number of shares were listed in October, as investors raced to snap up limited shares before the planned sale.

Habeco controls 20 percent of Vietnam's beer market.

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