Turkey: Efes buys Serbian brewer Pancevo

ISTANBUL (AA) – Turkish brewer Efes Breweries International N.V (EBI), purchased majority stake in Serbian brewer Pancevo.

Efes said that the number of countries the company in involved rose to six after Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Moldavia and Kazakhstan.

Pancevo produces and sells three brandnames”Weifert”, ”Karsten” and
”Standart” in Serbia.

Efes said: “In Serbia, the whole market is dominated by domestic producers and more than 470 million liter beer was sold in 2002 and per capita beer consumption is around 58 liters.”

Pancevo is expected to reach 50 percent capacity utilization rate this year, and raise production capacity with $10 million investment from its annual 40 million liters capacity, Efes said.

Efes purchased 63 percent of Pancevo for $6.5 million, and became the first international brewer investing in Serbia.