So Too Brazil

摘要

Looking beyond Asia, we see scope for a potential partnership be-ntween Kirin and Heineken in Brazil. Kirin’s acquisition of a majoritynstake in Brazilian brewer Schincariol for BRL3.95bn (US$2.4bn)nhas equipped the Japanese brewer with control of around 15% of thenhighly attractive Brazilian beer market, but this has also left it with the challenge of competing in a market overwhelmingly dominated nby Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) through its Brazilian arm nAmBev (it controls around 69% of the market). Heineken’s failure nto acquire Schincariol, on the other hand, is a big setback in our nopinion because Heineken already has decent exposure (around n8%) to Brazil, and with Schincariol on board, it could seemingly nhave built up some real scale. Nonetheless, should both Kirin and nHeineken decide to join forces and take on AmBev, they would nenjoy a much more sizeable presence in the Brazilian beer market nand would probably be better placed to challenge AmBev.