UK’s Cobra Beer plans to acquire three more breweries in India

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New Delhi, May 5: UK-based Cobra Beer is planning to acquire three more breweries in India by 2012, taking its total number of breweries in the country to 12 from the present 9. The company has created a warchest of $100 million towards acquisition and setting up of breweries by this period.

''These three breweries will come up in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and either Rajashthan, Haryana or Punjab in the north,'' company's chairman Karan Bilimoria told Fe.

''The money for the breweries will be raised through debt,'' Bilimoria added.

Bilimoria, however, refused, to speak on the exact details of the acquisition and said that the talks are on and one of the acquisition is likely to happen over the next two months.

Asked the company was going for the acquisition route instead of setting up greenfield breweries, Bilimoria said that it takes more than a year to set up a greenfield brewery and therefore the acquisition route is preferred.

With the acquisition of the targeted breweries the company plans to augment its capacity from the present 5 million cases to 16-17 million cases annually.

The company, at present has breweries at nine locations in the country like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar , Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.