Chile, Santiago: CCU, the Chilean brewer Compania Cervecerias Unidas SA issued US$110 million in five-year bonds last week, before Anheuser-Busch sold its minority stake in the brewer, local media revealed.
CCU is a diversified beverage company operating principally in Chile and Argentina. CCU is the largest Chilean brewer, the second-largest Argentine brewer, the third-largest Chilean soft drink producer, the second-largest Chilean wine producer, the largest Chilean mineral water producer and recently entered the pisco business. The Company has licensing and/or joint venture arrangements with Paulaner Brauerei AG, Anheuser-Busch Incorporated, Heineken Brouwerijen B.V., PepsiCo Inc., Schweppes Holdings Limited, Guinness Brewing Worldwide Limited and Watt’s Alimentos S.A.
On November 3 CCU posted its revenues up 7.8% for the first nine months of the year. Operating Income Increased 46.8%, EBITDA(1) Up 17.6%, Net Income Decreased 40.4% to US$0.56 per ADR. In the third quarter the beer Argentina segment increased its revenues 13.1% and improved its operating results by US$0.8 million, due to higher sales volume and price recovery in US dollar terms, rising from US$29/HL in Q3’03 to US$33/HL in Q3’04. Consolidated volumes growth is explained by an increase of 12.3% in beer Argentina, 4.0% in the soft drinks segment, 2.9% in beer Chile and 5.7% in the Chilean bottled export wine business. The increase in average prices is explained by increases of 2.1% in beer Chile, 16.5% in Chilean domestic wine, 2.4% in nectars and 1.1% in beer Argentina.
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