Thai-controlled Sabeco to start acquiring 43% stake in brewer Sabibeco next week

Thai Beverage-controlled Sabeco will start its public tender offer to buy an additional 37.81 million shares, or a 43.2% stake, in local brewer Sabibeco on October 31 until December 25.

If successful, Sabeco will raise its holding in Sabibeco from 14.37 million shares, or a 16.4 stake, to 52.2 million shares, or 59.6%, Sabeco said in a statement on Thursday.

With another 6.3% stake held by Binh Tay Liquor JSC, where Sabeco owns a 91.8% stake, Sabeco’s total holding in Sabibeco will increase to 65.9%.

Sabeco offers to buy Sabibeco shares, traded on the Unlisted Public Company Market (UPCoM) as SBB, at VND22,000 ($0.87) apiece, 23.6% higher than the closing price on Friday.

As such, it will have to spend VND832 billion ($32.8 million) on the acquisition.

Sabeco clarified that it has the right to terminate the tender offer in case: (i) the number of SBB shares registered for sale does not meet the minimum level of 25.12 million shares, equivalent to 28.7% of total outstanding shares of Sabibeco; (ii) Sabibeco sells assets valued from 35% of total asset value; (iii) Sabibeco reduces the number of voting shares; and (iv) Sabibeco issues shares and convertible bonds.

Ho Chi Minh City-based Vietcap Securities JSC (HoSE: VCI) will act as the tender offer agent.

HCMC-headquartered Sabibeco, which stands for Saigon Binh Tay Beer Group JSC, has a charter capital of VND875.25 billion ($34.5 million). It has six brewing factories with the Sagota brand. It also serves as Sabeco’s contractor.

Sabeco stated that the acquisition of Sabibeco is to increase its ownership in the latter to expand its business scale.

According to FPT Securities, after acquiring Sabibeco, Sabeco will raise its annual capacity by 25.4% to 3.01 million liters of beer and become the largest brewer in the country.

In the first half of this year, Sabeco earned a consolidated net profit of VND2,245.6 billion ($88.5 million) on revenue of VND15,269.8 billion, up 5.6% and 5.1% year-on-year, respectively.

Its total assets increased VND97 billion from end-2023 to VND34,154 billion as of June 30.