Possible deal between Mount Shivalik and Bud JV

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 22 November 2006, 18:30 IST
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Mumbai: The largest Indian domestic brewer Mt. Shivalik would probably gain access to beer giant Budweiser's India venture with a bottling pact, which would lead to lifting 50,000 cases of its beer brand from the Hyderabad-based Crown Breweries, slated to go on-stream next year. The latter is going to be the entry vehicle for the U.S. brewing giant Anheuser-Busch (A-B), makers of Budweiser beer. Crown is going to be a JV between A-B and the original promoters Prasad Rao and Srikanth Reddy where A-B would have an initial stake of 50 percent, with an initial monthly capacity of around 2.5 Lakh cases. Mt. Shivalik is the owner of Thunderbolt strong beer and if the deal is fructified then this would lead to the company's foray into the southern market. Director of Mt Shivalik, Manish Bali confirmed the proposal for this project. It was learnt that the U.S. company is not averse to leasing out excess capacity for its Indian JV to industry players apart from SABMiller.