Sabeco gets strong response at Singapore investors’ roadshow as Vietnam kicks off sale

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Vietnam’s biggest brewer Sabeco SAB.HM has received a strong response from potential suitors at an investors’ roadshow in Singapore, its chairman said, as the government moves closer to finalizing a stake sale in the $9 billion maker of Bia Saigon and 333 brews.

Vo Thanh Ha said the government is due shortly to publish details of a divestment plan for its nearly 90 percent stake in Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, as the brewer is formally called, as part of a lengthy fund-raising exercise.

The sale has attracted interest from global brewers seeking access to what is already the second-most profitable market for Dutch brewer Heineken NV (HEIN.AS), which holds 5 percent of Sabeco.

Vietnam’s per-capita beer consumption is forecast to grow to 47.8 liters by 2021 from an estimated 40.6 liters this year, making the Southeast Asian country the biggest beer consumer on a per capita basis among Asian countries, data from research firm Euromonitor International showed.

The Sabeco sale could also provide a template for more planned privatizations including that of peer Habeco BHN.HM, in which Danish brewer Carlsberg A/S (CARLb.CO) owns 17.3 percent.

“We met a number of very high-profile investors – strategic investors and industry players,” Ha said in an interview in Singapore.

Some investors said a small free float has inflated Sabeco’s market value.

Sabeco dominates Vietnam’s beer market where its main rivals are Heineken and Habeco, formally Hanoi Beer Alcohol & Beverage JSC. It expects the introduction of premium products to help it maintain a market share of 40 to 42 percent over the next two or three years, Ha said.

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