Buying a Heineken

Heineken is planning on buying the beer operations of Mexican brewers Femsa in an all-share transaction valued at $7.6 billion. “The move will make Heineken a ‘more competitive player in Latin America, one of the world’s most profitable and fastest-growing beer markets,’ the chairman and chief executive of Heineken, Jean-François van Boxmeer, said in a statement. The deal by the Netherlands-based Heineken follows a sales process by Femsa, formally known as Fomento Económico Mexicano S.A.B., that has lasted months. Many analysts had expected SABMiller to prevail in the race for Femsa, whose beer brands include Dos Equis and Tecate, but it dropped out in recent weeks, people briefed on the matter said Sunday. ‘It’s a transformational deal for Heineken,’ said Marco Gulpers, beverage analyst at ING. ‘We were expecting a deal north of $10 billion dollars. The way they structured it, this is creating more value.’”