Beer Games With Foreign Capital

The joint venture, Sun-Interbrew, their brainchild, will be in the usual brewing business, and will also produce malt and soft drinks in Russia and Ukraine. Company experts expect the combination of Sun Brewing's many years of operation on Russia's regional market and Interbrew's professional experience, along with their 34% interest in Sun-Interbrew each, to make the latter a leading brewer in Russia and Ukraine.

It is hard to disagree with the experts. Interbrew is to contribute $40 million to the joint venture, plus a controlling interest in such local breweries as Rosar (Omsk, Russia) and Yasna (Chernihiv), also maybe Rohan (Kharkiv). Sun Brewing owns breweries in St. Petersburg, Perm, Ivanovo, Kursk, Saransk, and Volzhsky.

Independent experts, however, voice their concern: the new player could well monopolize the Ukrainian beer market by manipulating prices, which would be unfair but quite effective.

Serhiy Plashchenovych, chairman of the board, of Obolon, the publicly held joint stock company, told The Day that the company being established will not be Ukrainian and asked rhetorically, "Would Belgium allow its beer output to be controlled by any foreign company? Foreigners are always careful to protect their interests back home. Perhaps we should follow suit. They will never let us into the German beer market. Well, I work for Obolon, so it is difficult to discuss the subject. The people in charge of running the economy should comment. It's within their competence."

The Day contacted Vasyl Struk, deputy head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. "There is no direct evidence pointing to any transgressions, but the overall impression is that of foul play, for their assets are rather sizable. If their total amount exceeds $12 million there is an obvious transgression, for they were supposed to get the commission's permission first. All this has to be checked, of course."