Report: Miller Beer may merge, aiming at No. 1 brewer spot

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Posted 6:30AM on Monday, January 28, 2002

MILWAUKEE - Miller Brewing Co. is reportedly discussing a merger with a pair of United Kingdom-based breweries and could announce a deal as early as March. The new company would combine Miller, Edinburgh-based Scottish & Newcastle PLC and London-based South African Breweries PLC, overtaking Anheuser-Busch to become the world's largest brewer, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in Sunday's editions. The deal would keep Miller's headquarters in Milwaukee and its 1,000 jobs, industry analysts said. Miller's parent company, Philip Morris Cos., and both brewers have not reached a final agreement, the newspaper reported. Calls to Miller by The Associated Press Sunday weren't immediately returned. The Financial Times of London reported in November of a possible merger of Miller, Scottish & Newcastle and South African Breweries. Representatives of all three companies have declined to comment on the reports. Philip Morris would keep about 20 percent ownership of the new company, with Scottish & Newcastle and South African Breweries owning the remainder under the plan, the Journal Sentinel reported, citing an anonymous source. Such a merger would give Scottish & Newcastle and South African Breweries a bigger foothold in the United States, said Mark Rodman, who owns Beverage Distribution Consultants, of Swampscott, Mass. Miller, the world's sixth-largest brewer, has a majority of its sales in the United States, where it has a 20 percent market share. The company's sales volume declined by 2.7 percent in 2001, after a 4 percent drop in 2000. Scottish & Newcastle is the world's seventh-largest brewer, and South African Breweries is the world's fifth-largest brewer.