Heineken Raises Stake in Champion Breweries with N5bn

By Dipo Olowookere

The stake of Heineken International BV in Champion Breweries Plc has increased with the acquisition of additional shares of the local brewer worth N5.0 billion.

The company bought 1,903,609,538 stocks of Champion Breweries through one of its wholly-owned firm, Raysun Nigeria Limited.

The additional equities were purchased by Raysun Nigeria on Thursday, January 7, 2021, on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) as a unit price of N2.60.

Champion Breweries is one of the firms in the brewery industry in Nigeria, though it is not a major player.

The sector is dominated by Nigerian Breweries Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc and lately International Breweries Plc. It is important to note that Heineken also controls a substantial stake in Nigerian Breweries.

Champion Breweries, which is located in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, produces Champion Lager and Champion Malta, which are mainly sold in the southern part of the country, excluding the southwest.

Business Post reports that in January 2004, Raysun Nigeria purchased the majority stake of Consolidated Breweries Plc in Champion Breweries in a cross deal involving the transfer of 513 million stocks worth N949 million.

According to Wikipedia, Champion Breweries was established as a publicly funded commercial enterprise in 1974 and began manufacturing in 1976 with a capacity of 150,000 hecto litres of Champion beer and 10,000 hecto litres of Champion Malta.

At formation, the firm patronised a plastic manufacturing company to produce crates for holdings the products instead of paper cartons, a precedent other beer producers later followed.

On Friday, shares of the company appreciated by 9 kobo or 9.68 per cent to trade at 1.02 per unit.