Grupo Empresarial Bavaria considers merger

25/02/05 Colombia, The president of Colombian brewer Grupo Empresarial Bavaria on Thursday confirmed that the company is interested in a possible merger.

Bavaria president Ricardo Obregon said one of the firm's majority shareholders, Energetic and Financial Investment, hired an investment bank to shop around for possible suitors.

In January, reports surfaced that a handful of foreign companies - including South Africa's SABMiller, InBev of Belgium and Heineken of the Netherlands - had begun preliminary talks to acquire Bavaria in a deal that could be worth $9 billion US.

Bavaria, South America's second-largest brewer, controls more than 95 per cent of the Colombian beer market and is the dominant brewer in Ecuador, Panama and Peru through its subsidiaries.

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