Singapore: Asia Pacific Breweries upgraded to "Buy Vs Neutral"

Analysts at Nomura upgraded Asia Pacific Breweries to Buy Vs Neutral, Dow Jones Newswires posted June 23.

Listed on the Singapore Exchange, Asia Pacific Breweries Limited (APB) is one of the key players in the beer industry. A joint venture between the Fraser and Neave Group of companies (37.9%) and Heineken of Holland (42.5%), APB was established as Malayan Breweries Limited (MBL) in 1931. It went on to open its first brewery in Singapore and launched the award-winning Tiger Beer a year later.

To more accurately reflect the growing regionalisation of its business interests, MBL was renamed Asia Pacific Breweries Limited in 1990. Today, APB oversees a portfolio of over 40 beer brands and brand variants, including Tiger Beer, Heineken, Anchor and ABC Stout. The group operates an extensive global marketing network, which spreads across 60 countries and is currently supported by 27 breweries in ten countries including Singapore, Cambodia, China, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. APB has recently entered two new joint ventures to build greenfield breweries in Mongolia and Laos. The two breweries are expected to be ready in 2007.

With more than 70 years in the brewing industry, APB has been consistently ranked by the Far Eastern Economic Review as one of the top companies in Asia. KPMG also rated APB as among the top ten value creators in Singapore, for having consistently added value for its customers, consumers and shareholders.

APB benchmarks itself against international brewing standards and observes the most stringent brewing process that sees no less than 250 quality control checks. This explains why APB breweries are among the forerunners in their respective markets with various quality assurance certifications including the ISO 9002, ISO 9001:2000, and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point.

APB's flagship brew, Tiger Beer commands a strong following in Asia and is also widely enjoyed in many European cities such as London, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, Berlin, Copenhagen, Stockholm and many others. The internationally recognised Singapore beer has accumulated a long list of accolades, awards and distinctions. The most notable include an international award at the Brewers Exhibition in London, the Brewing Industry International Awards, UK, 1998 (the equivalent of the Oscar Awards for the brewing industry) and the coveted Gold Monde International Quality Trophy. More recently, Tiger Beer won the Gold medal in the European Style Pilsener category of the 2004 World Beer Cup, a competition which is considered "the Olympics of Beer Competitions" by the industry. The same year also saw the brew being named one of the coolest brands in the UK by SuperBrands UK Ltd, an independent arbiter on branding in the UK.

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