DUTCH brewer Heineken announced on Monday, November 15 that it intends to obtain control of Distell and Namibia Breweries to create a regional beverage champion for Southern Africa.
Heineken made the announcement via their official website indicating that if the deal goes through, it will open doors in more routes to market elsewhere in Africa for Heineken where Distell has been dominating.
CEO Dolf van den Brink described Distell as a highly regarded, resilient business with leading brands, a talented workforce and a strong track record of innovation and growth in Africa.
“We are very excited to bring together three strong businesses to create a regional beverage champion, perfectly positioned to capture significant growth opportunities in Southern Africa.
“Together we will be able to better serve our consumers and customers through a unique combination of multi-category leading brands and a strengthened route-to-market,” Van de Brink said.
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Distell’s CEO Richard Rushton said further that their new partnership has the potential to leverage the strength of Heineken’s global footprint with leading brands to create a formidable, diverse beverage company for Africa.
“I am excited for what lies ahead as we look to combine our strong and popular brands and highly complementary geographical footprints to create a world-class African company in the alcohol beverage sector,” Rushton explained.
Meanwhile, the completion of the transaction between the parties is subject to customary and applicable approvals as expressions of support for the transaction have been received from shareholders representing c.56% of the votes of Distell and c.68% of the votes of minority shareholders of NBL.
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Picture: Cape {town} etc gallery