Heineken NV of Amsterdam has announced that Heineken, Diageo and Nambia Breweries have agreed to form a joint venture for their combined beer, cider & RTD businesses in South Africa. The project will build on the success of the parties' existing cost-sharing joint venture in South Africa, Beverages (Pty) Limited. Heineken & Diageo will each have a 42.25% share in the venture while Nambia will own 15.5%. The transaction is subject to approval of the Competition Commission of South Africa. Furthermore, Heineken and Diageo are to form a second joint venture to construct and operate a brewery in the country's Gauteng province, owned 75% by Heineken and 25% by Diageo. The brewery's initial capacity will be 3m/hectolitres once production begins at the end of 2009. Across both ventures, Heineken's total net investment will be 260M/Euros.
