Heineken buys Patra

Dutch brewer Heineken has announced that it has agreed to purchase Patra a small brewer based in Yekaterinburg, Russia’s third largest city.

The purchase will increase Heineken’s share of the Russian market from 7.5 percent to 8.3 percent, and continues the company’s practice of buying small regional breweries in growing markets.

Petra’s net profits in 2004 were $1.2 million, on turnover of $27 million.

Heineken’s purchase comes after three years in which it underperformed the beverages sector in Europe by around 30 percent. Heineken will use available cash to fund the purchase, which is for an undisclosed amount.

Russia is the fifth-largest beer market in the world. Beer consumption in Russia increased at the end of the Soviet era when then-leader Mikhail Gorbachev promoted beer as a healthier alternative to the traditional Russian drink, vodka.

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