Dutch Heineken to buy Slovenian brewer Lasko

LJUBLJANA | By Marja Novak

A bottle of Heineken beer is seen in ice in Singapore May 10, 2012.

Reuters/Matthew Lee

(Reuters) - Heineken (HEIN.AS) has agreed to buy Slovenian brewery Pivovarna Lasko (PILR.LJ) in a deal valuing the company at 224 million euros ($237 million), Lasko's largest shareholder Bank Asset Management Company (DUTB) and Heineken said on Monday.
Sources told Reuters that Heineken outbid investment funds CVC [CVC.UL], KKR (KKR.N) and Mid Europa Partners.
DUTB, which owns 23.5 percent of Lasko, and Heineken, the
world's third largest brewer, said Heineken would pay 25.56 euros per share and buy 51.11 percent of Lasko.
It would later bid for the whole company in line with Slovenian legislation which requires anyone that buys at least one third of a company to make an offer for the rest.
Lasko shares gained 5 percent to 21 euros on Friday before the bourse suspended trading in Lasko on Monday pending the takeover decision.
The whole deal was worth a total of about 400 million euros when considering Lasko's debt which forced the company to put itself up for sale last year, the sources said.
"This acquisition strengthens our position within the region and will bring two complementary strong local brands into our existing portfolio," Heineken Chief Executive Jean-Francois van Boxmeer said. Heineken has previously said the Slovenian breweries were high quality and that it envisaged marketing the Lasko brand outside the country.
It said Slovenia was centrally positioned between other markets where Heineken has operations. The Dutch brewer is already present in all Slovenia's neighbors – Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.
Lasko represents a small add-on deal for Heineken, which has pushed into Mexico and spent over $6 billion in 2012 to take full control of the Asian brewer of Tiger beer.
($1 = 0.9450 euros)
(Reporting by Marja Novak; Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Martinne Geller; Editing by Keith Weir and Susan Thomas