Owner of Estonia’s No. 2 brewery invests in Belarus
Toomas Hõbemägi
The company that is the third largest brewery and soft drink company in Finland said in a statement that Belarus was a natural direction for Olvi’s expansion since Olvi already has brewery operations in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Lidskoe Pivo is in private ownership. After the transaction, Olvi plc is the majority shareholder with a 51 percent holding, while the remaining 49 percent is distributed evenly among the brewery’s personnel. The acquisition price is approximately USD 16 million.
Lidskoe Pivo’s operations have been profitable every year since privatisation in 1993. The brewery’s net sales in 2007 amounted to USD 30.5 million at 70 million litres of annual production volume. Beer accounted for 43 million litres of total production, with the remaining 26 million litres consisting of soft drinks, mineral waters and kvass, which is a Russian-style low-alcoholic beer.
The sales volume is expected to increase by 15 pct on the previous year. The company was the fourth largest brewery in Belarus in 2007 and had a market share of approximately 12 percent in beers. In addition to Olvi, two other international brewery companies operate in the country: Carlsberg/BBH and Heineken. All other breweries are state-owned.
Olvi was founded on 5 October 1878 and is quoted on the OTC List of the Helsinki Exchanges since 1987. Olvi's other subsidiaries are A/S Cesu Alus in Latvia and AB Ragutis in Lithuania. The Olvi Group employs more than 1,000 people.
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