Drinks company Diageo has agreed to sell its Guinness Cameroon brewery to French group Castel for 389 million pounds, or $459.8 million, or about F300 billion, according to Reuters.
Castel will take over the production and national distribution of Guinness in Cameroon under a licensing and royalty agreement, it said.
“Under the new agreement, the brand will have both brewing capacity and increased distribution. It will continue to be part of the global Guinness family through direct marketing oversight,” said Dayalan Nayager, president of Diageo Africa, in the statement.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of fiscal 2023, subject to regulatory approvals. Once completed, the transaction will result in a one-off gain on disposal of approximately £250 million after tax, Diageo said.
The acquisition includes agreements for the production and distribution of Guinness in Cameroon at a national level with Société Anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroun (SABC), a subsidiary of Castel.
Also, an increase in production and distribution capacity to continue the growth of Guinness in Cameroon. In addition, the agreement includes close collaboration between SABC (Castel) and GCSA (Diageo) in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition and continuation of Guinness projects.
Dayalan Nayager, President of Diageo Africa, explained that: “Given Guinness’ strong performance, its needs exceed the capacity of its current brewery in Douala. With this new agreement, the brand will benefit from increased production and distribution capacity,” he said.
Diageo
The brewing sector in Cameroon is currently dominated by the Sabc Group, with a market share estimated at 74%, followed by Guinness Cameroon with 15%, and the Union des Brasseries du Cameroun (Ucb), with 10%. With this new acquisition, the SABC Group remains the market leader but with a larger share (89%).
This transaction comes at a time when a new beer, notably made in Cameroon, has recently entered the market. “Slash Beer”, from the industrialist Samuel Foyou.
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