Denmark: Danish beer giant, Carlsberg A/S, expects a significant improvement in the Swedish market this year and plans acquisitions of small breweries in Asia and Eastern Europe, Carlsberg CEO Nils Smedegard Andersen told daily Jyllands-Posten. “Carlsberg is again interested in acquiring competitors, not large competitors such as Heineken or Scottish & Newcastle, but small special breweries, for example in Asia and eastern Europe, where prices are more reasonable,” Smedegaard Andersen added. “We always have (an eye on) someone in the binoculars, but who it will eventually be, you'll have to read in a stock exchange announcement”.

The Swedish market impacted Carlsberg negatively by DKK 100 million last year, but the recent improvement there is expected to lift the group's profit margin by at least 1 percentage point, Smedegaard Andersen told the daily.

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