Mexico City, Oct 2 - Mexican brewer and bottler FEMSA is looking at merging its beer operations with a larger international player in a deal valued at as much as $9 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
The paper said FEMSA -- one of Latin America's biggest brewers and the maker of Tecate, Sol and Dos Equis beers, has talked to Britain's SABMiller Plc and Heineken from the Netherlands, although a deal is not yet imminent.
FEMSA is being advised by NM Rothschild & Sons Ltd and talks have recently become more formal and serious, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.
FEMSA and SABMiller declined to comment on the report, and officials at Heineken were not immediately available.
A deal with FEMSA could give an international player access to one of the region's most lucrative markets and create a formidable challenge to FEMSA rival Grupo Modelo , maker of the Corona brand.
FEMSA and Grupo Modelo, partly owned by AB InBev, are roughly neck and neck in control of Mexico's beer industry.
It was not clear whether FEMSA might be looking at selling part or all of its beer operation. Divesting its beer arm would leave it with the Coca-Cola FEMSA soft drink unit and the fast-expanding Oxxo convenience store chain.
"I think they are factoring in an attractive premium," said a Mexico City-based analyst, who declined to be named, of the reported $9 billion price tag.
In May, FEMSA Chief Executive Jose Antonio Fernandez said the company would not rule out acquisitions this year or next, possibly taking advantage of companies hit by the global slowdown, but he declined to elaborate.
SHARES SURGE, BUT WERE HALTED IN MEXICO
FEMSA's New York-traded shares closed up nearly 17 percent on the report. In Mexico, the stock was halted half an hour before the closing bell, with its last trades at 57.80 pesos, up 12.50 percent.
The Mexican stock exchange said trading would not resume until FEMSA releases information.
FEMSA started as a beer brewer and ice maker in 1890 in the northern industrial city of Monterrey. Still based in Monterrey, it now has a portfolio of 35 beer brands and operates 14 production plants in Mexico and Brazil.
The company's second-quarter net earnings were flat as gains from foreign exchange declined, but strong soft drink sales and Oxxo store expansions pushed up revenue nearly 19 percent despite Mexico's worst recession in decades.
Price hikes drove a rise in quarterly beer sales but sale volumes declined across the board.
FEMSA embarked on a $250 million cost-cutting program this year to better handle the impact of the economic slowdown.