Galery

1

The second and third largest beer companies in the Greek market are to merge. Those are Mythos Brewery - the subsidiary of the Danish Carlsberg Group in Greece, and Greece’s Olympic Brewery, which appeared in the market in 2010, bringing back to life the historical beer brand Fix.

The merger was announced earlier today in the headquarters of the Group in Denmark, and the official announcement in Athens is expected later today.

In the new scheme, Carlsberg will hold 51% of the shares whereas the current shareholders of Olympic Brewery will own the remaining 49%.

President of the new company named New Olympic Brewery will be Lars Lehmann from the Carlsberg Group and current CEO of Mythos Brewery Alexandros Karafilidis will become Executive Director.

The communication of the Carlsberg Group states that the merger of the two breweries will create a strong company with an almost 29% share in the domestic beer market. "The combination of Olympic Brewery’s strong local brand, Fix, and the Carlsberg Group’s local power brand Mythos and our international premium portfolio will create a very strong product portfolio, making the combined company a very attractive partner for Greek retailers and wholesalers. In addition, the combination of the companies will generate synergies within areas such as procurement, production and distribution," notes the text.

In his statement, CEO of the Carlsberg Group Jorgen Buhl Rasmussen stresses, "The Greek market offers interesting opportunities. We have been very pleased with the performance of Mythos Brewery since we have taken over the business as part of the Scottish & Newcastle acquisition. The merger with Olympic Brewery and the creation of a strong number two player in the Greek market represents a step-change in our local business and we are very excited about the prospects for the merged company."

In 2013, Mythos Brewery had a turnover of 92.17 million euro, whereas a year earlier it reached 84.75 million euro. The company profit before tax was 6.1 million euro last year compared to 3.21 million euro in 2012. In turn, Olympic Brewery had a turnover of 53 million euro in 2013.
 
It is noteworthy that this is not the first attempt of the two companies to merge. In the spring of 2014, the two sides had reached such an agreement, but the negotiations had been frozen soon afterwards. The Danish Carlsberg Group showed a significant interest in the Fix brand and in midsummer representatives of the companies sat down again at the negotiating table, resulting in today's agreement in one of the main sectors of consumer goods in Greece.

The merger is subject to approval by the Hellenic Competition Commission.