Russia: Baltika to build a 65 mln EURO plant in West Siberia

Baltika, Russia's leading brewery, said on December 19th it is to begin construction of a 65 million EUR brewing plant in the West Siberian city of Novosibirsk in 2007, according to RIA Novosti.

The presentation of the project to build a plant with an annual output of 2 million hectolitres was held Tuesday in Novosibirsk and was attended by Novosibirsk Region Governor Viktor Tolokonsky. Plans call for the plant to begin operation in the second quarter of 2008, and the project's payback period is estimated at six years.

Tolokonsky said the plant is expected to yield 280 million rubles ($10.6 million) to the regional budget in 2008, 440 million rubles ($16.7 million) in 2009, and about 700-730 million rubles ($27.7 million) annually in the following years.

Established in St. Petersburg in 1990, Baltika has five breweries in St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Tula, Samara and Khabarovsk, with a total capacity of 24 million hectoliters a year.

Baltika produces Foster's and Carlsberg beers under license in Russia, and sells its products in Russia and 38 other countries.

In July of this year, Baltika increased its stakes in the charter capital of three smaller beer makers in a merger effort: from 0.17% to 92.76% in St. Petersburg-based Vena, from 21.59% to 91.9% in Krasnoyarsk's Pikra and from 0.03% to 87.19% in Yarpivo in Yaroslavl.

Vena, Pikra and Yarpivo are part of Baltic Beverages Holding AB (BBH), Baltika's major shareholder since 1993, with a 75.4% stake in the company.