St Petersburg, Russia, Aug 13 - Danish brewer Carlsberg wants to unite its operations in the CIS, including major East European asset and top Russian brewer Baltika , Baltika's chief executive told Reuters.
"Our current high priority goal is to unite operations in the countries in which Baltika is acting with other BBH companies... The main point is integration," Baltika CEO and Chief Vice President of Carlsberg, Anton Artyomov, said in an interview last week.
Carlsberg this year hooked up with Dutch peer Heineken to buy Britain's Scottish & Newcastle (S&N) for 7.8 billion pounds ($14.85 billion). The deal secured Carlsberg all of eastern European venture Baltic Beverages Holding (BBH), including control of its crown jewel, Baltika.
Unifying Carlsberg's ex-Soviet operations would include "the exchange of technologies, knowledge, experience and best practices. The other key point is synergy," Artyomov said.
Baltika sold 44.3 million hectolitres of beer last year and in the first half of 2008 had a 38 percent share of the Russian beer market.
Artyomov said it is expected to soon outpace the Russian beer market's growth, but declined to give an exact figure.
He predicts the beer market in Russia will increase by 5 percent this year and around 3 percent in 2009.
Artyomov also said Baltika will increase its dividends over the next few years due to plans by the firm to maintain a high share of the net profit to be paid to shareholders.
"I have no reason to believe that our dividends practice will be changed. Our practice was to increase dividends with the net profit growth. I have no reason to believe that they will be less."
Carlsberg has no plans to completely own Baltika, or merge it with other CIS assets, Artyomov said.
"Carlsberg will keep Baltika as a listed company."
Unifying assets could also create a merger possibility in Kazakhstan, he said, declining to give more details on a possible deal.
"Our (Baltika-owned) company in Kazakhstan and the Carlsberg-owned Derbes brewer are separate entities. We're looking at the possibility of unifying them," he said.
Derbes is currently expanding to take its production capacity to 2.5 million hectoliters from its current 2.0 million.