LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) – Strong growth in Africa and Latin America helped global brewer SABMiller offset a fall in beer drinking in Europe and North America, as the Grolsch and Peroni maker beat forecasts with a 12 percent rise in full-year earnings.

The world’s second biggest brewer earns 70 percent of its profit from fast-growing emerging markets, which helps insulate it from tough mature markets where hard-pressed consumers are economising at the bar and drinking less beer at home.

The London-based brewer, which bought Foster’s in December with its near-half share of the Australian beer market, was boosted by strong markets in Colombia and Peru in Latin America and in countries such as Tanzania and Zambia in Africa.

Chief executive Graham Mackay said on Thursday his group was seeing a two-speed world with Africa and Latin America the star performers, with Asia supportive and Europe, North America and Australia more difficult for various reasons.

“Europe is suffering from downtrading with the trends exacerbated by discounting, the U.S. economy is getting better but this is not being translated to the mainstream beer market, while the Australian market is not as stressed and the trend is slightly favourable,” he told a results briefing.

He predicted more of the same for its 2012/13 year, with further growth for emerging markets and more modest rises in consumer spending in some mature markets. Input commodity costs were ticking higher, he said.

Mackay expected the cost of inputs, such as barley, glass, aluminium and energy, will see a mid-single digit percent rise this year after reporting a low-single digit increase. Cost cuts and price rises would hold profits margins steady with, perhaps, some improvement going forward, he said.

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) – A trio of private equity groups remain in the hunt to buy Europe’s biggest frozen food company Iglo Group in a 2.5 billion euro ($3.2 billion) plus auction process, people familiar with the process said.

Blackstone, BC Partners and PAI are into the second round of the sale by rival buyout firm Permira while Bain and Clayton Dubilier & Rice did not make the cut, the people added.

Iglo, which markets under the Birds Eye brand in Britain and Ireland, Iglo in most of continental Europe and Findus in Italy, is more than twice the size of its nearest frozen food rival and was put up for sale earlier this year, with Credit Suisse advising on the process.

The group, which makes food products popular with West European children, sold over 2 billion fish fingers in 2011 – enough to circle the earth five times – and enough frozen peas to fill 40 Olympic swimming pools.

Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl, Thailand’s largest agribusiness company, has denied earlier reports it was interested in the whole group, but sources say it may link up with a private equity player in a joint bid.

Iglo, led by food industry veteran Martin Glenn, has been in Permira’s hands since 2006, with the firm bolting on the Findus Italy frozen foods business in 2010 as it looked to enhance its dominant position in Europe.

Iglo is set to start management presentations to the bidders this week, one of the people said.

LONDON, May 15 (Reuters) – British drinks group Diageo is weeks away from buying a minority stake in the owner of the world’s no. 1 tequila brand, Jose Cuervo, a business valued at $3 billion-plus, with talks focusing on whether the Beckmann family will take shares or cash.

A deal which will allow Diageo to take majority control of the business at a later date is the current favoured option as the Beckmanns are not keen on selling out completely and are eager to benefit from future growth, sources close to the talks said.

The Johnnie Walker whisky and Smirnoff vodka maker already distributes Cuervo in most big export markets outside Mexico and is talking to the Beckmanns about what happens well ahead of the expiry of its distribution contract in June 2013.

“A deal with Diageo taking a minority stake in Cuervo for cash or shares seems the most likely outcome with an agreement expected in the next six weeks,” said one source with knowledge of the situation, adding the stake could be some 20-30 percent.

When talks between the two started last year, Diageo’s Chief Executive Paul Walsh said terms of the existing deal dating back to 2002 would have to change as Cuervo is one of its lowest margin brands and was not realising its potential in the world’s biggest tequila market of the United States.

Walsh said an equity participation was the bare minimum he would accept in a new deal, and he is eager to buy the Cuervo brand outright or via a more complex route involving taking a minority stake as a way of gaining control eventually.

Analysts value Cuervo at $3.0-3.5 billion, but with over 80 percent of tequila drunk in the U.S. and Mexico, Diageo sees clear expansion opportunities as the group is pledged to increase its overall scale in fast-growing emerging markets.

LONDON (Reuters) – German consumer goods group Henkel (HNKG_p.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), set to become debt free next year, is looking for acquisitions for both its consumer brands and industrial adhesive businesses four years after its last major purchase.

Chief executive Kasper Rorsted, who has turned Henkel around in his four-year tenure with his ambitious and results-driven management, is looking to boost growth with acquisitions and also raise investment in fast-growing emerging markets in Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East.

“We are not in a hurry but if there is an opportunity which makes a good fit then we will be open to acquisitions,” the 50-year Danish-born Rorsted said on Thursday, a day after Henkel’s first-quarter results put it in line to meet 2012 targets.

He is looking for big regional and country brands to add to Henkel’s stable of Persil detergents and Right Guard deodorants, and also on the look-out for access to new technologies when expanding its world-leading adhesives business.

“We have been looking for acquisitions for two years and there have been assets which were too expensive. It is a question of what we are willing to pay for,” he said, adding acquisitions must be a good strategic fit at the right price and within the company’s core business areas.

Despite ongoing economic and political uncertainties, Rorsted was “very encouraged” by North America, Henkel’s largest market and which accounts for a fifth of the group’s business, where underlying first-quarter sales growth of 6.3 percent compared with 0.1 percent in western Europe.

He said Greece exiting the euro, while serious for the country, would have no significant effect on Henkel as the nation only accounted for around 0.5 percent of group’s sales of 15.6 billion euros in 2011.

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) – InterContinental, the world’s biggest hotelier, is looking for a further boost from London’s Olympic Games this summer, it said on Wednesday, after reporting a 5 percent rise in first-quarter profits thanks to strong growth in China and the United States, its two biggest markets.

The British-based group, home to the Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and InterContinental brands, said with 79 days to the start of the Olympics it hoped to gain from assisting in running the 15,000-strong athletes village and lodging the games’ visitors its London hotels.

Chief Executive Richard Solomons said that its Olympic involvement, including its Holiday Inn sponsorship, would help the group’s hotels continue the growth they had seen during the early part of the year

“Broadly the momentum of the business is continuing, and we are very comfortable with the year so far,” he told a briefing.

He added that talks on the long-awaited sale of its flagship InterContinental New York Barclay hotel were still progressing with one exclusive buyer, which analysts said was likely to be the Qatari hotel owner Ghanim Bin Saad Al Saad.

The sale of the Manhattan hotel for around an expected $300 million in return for a management contract has been going on for over a year, and is expected to lead to a share buyback.

Despite economic problems in Europe, Solomons said its business there had performed well with a strong reliance on its key markets of Britain, France and Germany.

SHANGHAI/LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) – China’s Bright Food will take control of breakfast cereal maker Weetabix, beloved by generations of British children, in the biggest foreign acquisition by a Chinese food group.

State-owned Bright Food has agreed to buy a 60 percent stake in a deal which puts a value of 1.2 billion pounds ($1.94 billion), including debt, on the private-equity owned company that coined the slogan “Have you had your Weetabix today?”

The Shanghai-based group has been on the acquisition trail, seeking to raise its profile and cater for its rapidly growing home market. Weetabix is its second foreign purchase in a year and its first in Europe after other deals fell through.

Eighty-year-old Weetabix is Britain’s second biggest maker of breakfast cereals and cereal bars after Kellogg.

Its brands include Alpen muesli and Ready Break as well as Weetabix, which lays claim to being Britain’s No. 1 breakfast cereal for under-5s and is made from wheat grown within 50 miles (80 km) of its base in southern England.

“As China’s leading food group, we are pleased to become the controlling shareholder of Weetabix,” Bright Food chairman Wang Zhongnan said in a statement on Thursday. “Weetabix has an excellent product portfolio, including leading British cereal brand Weetabix and other category-leading brands.”

Private equity owners Lion Capital and Weetabix management will keep a 40 percent stake.

LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) – Sales at Diageo, the world’s biggest distilled drinks group, were up 6 percent in the first three months of 2012 with fast-growing emerging markets and a recovery in North America offsetting falling sales in Europe.

The London-based maker of Smirnoff vodka and Captain Morgan rum said on Thursday that despite weakness in Europe its fiscal third-quarter performance was in line with its expectations, and this put it on track to hit its medium-term target which is also for 6 percent sales growth.

The British group gained as markets in Latin America, Africa and Asia showed strong demand for its range of drinks, a U.S. recovery gathered steam while in Europe, Spain and Greece were in decline and the UK market disappointed.

“Trading in the third quarter remained strong with the year-to-date performance in line with the first half and our expectations,” said Chief Executive Paul Walsh in a trading update.

The 6 percent rise in its January-March third quarter underlying sales beat a forecast for 5 percent growth from a Reuters survey of six brokers. The rise was split equally between price rise and volume increases.

This saw the group’s nine-month sales to end-March rise 7 percent, similar to the increase in its July-December first half, with some 3 percent coming from price rises.

The nine-month sales picture was led by Latin America and Caribbean with a 18 percent rise, Africa was up 12 percent, Asia Pacific 10 percent ahead and North America 5 percent higher while Europe saw a fall of one percent.

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) – British consumer goods group Reckitt Benckiser reported a slightly better than expected 4 percent rise in underlying first-quarter sales on Tuesday as a new focus on its top brands and fastest growing markets started to pay off.

New chief executive Rakesh Kapoor, who took over last September after Bart Becht’s shock decision to retire, said the group’s results were driven by strong emerging market growth and success with a string of new products.

“These results give us the confidence to reiterate our 2012 target of like-for-like net revenue growth of 200 basis points above our market growth rate of 1-2 percent. We also expect to maintain full-year operating margins,” he said in a statement.

The maker of Nurofen painkillers and Cillit Bang cleaners reported the 4 percent rise in like-for-like first-quarter sales when stripping out its Suboxone pharmaceuticals unit, slightly ahead of a company-compiled forecast for a 3.8 percent rise.

Kapoor said strong emerging market growth was tempered by a “satisfactory” performance in Europe and North America with sales there down 2 percent, while growth was helped by new products like Veet easy wax roll-on hair remover and Lysol no-touch kitchen system disinfectant.

Reckitt shares were 0.9 percent higher at 3,618 pence by 1210 GMT in a slightly firmer UK market. They have slowly recovered since Becht’s sudden announcement of his departure in April 2011 and now trade nearly ten percent higher.

Kapoor launched his new strategy in February with a focus on fast-growing health and hygiene brands like Dettol/Lysol disinfectant and Durex condoms, and a big push into emerging markets, while increasing marketing spend behind key brands.

LONDON, May 1 (Reuters) – Imperial Tobacco, the world’s No. 4 cigarette group, set a 500 million pound ($812 million) share buyback and said it saw a return to sales growth as the West and Gauloises cigarette maker put many of its 2011 problems behind it.

The British company, which sells over 340 billion cigarettes annually, reported that half-year earnings beat forecasts as it gained from the ending of a price war in Spain and the unwinding of destocking in the United States and Ukraine.

Chief executive Alison Cooper was upbeat despite two of its biggest markets, Britain and Spain, slipping back into recession as it countered the downturn with a twin strategy of offering cheaper cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco products and hiking the prices of offerings aimed at more affluent consumers.

“We are a defensive sector and have seen a bit of softness but even in this environment we can do well and have a lot of momentum going in the second half both in the EU and outside the EU,” she told a briefing after half-year results on Tuesday.

Cooper said the group offered a range of products from its top brands like Davidoff, Gauloises, West and JPS through to fine tobacco like Gold Leaf and Golden Virginia Yellow to cope with tough economic climates in many of its markets.

Imperial, like bigger rivals Philip Morris, British American Tobacco and Japan Tobacco has in parallel been hiking prices and expanding into emerging markets to offset declining smoking levels in many mature markets.

Imperial shares rose 2 percent to 2,513 pence by 0810 GMT, one of the biggest risers in the FTSE 100 after seeing its shares recover by nearly 20 percent over the last year as sales and cigarette volumes have started to come back.

LONDON (Reuters) – Consumer goods giant Unilever (ULVR.L: Quote, Profile, Research) (UNc.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) beat forecasts with an 8.4 percent rise in first-quarter sales on Thursday, helped by price hikes and emerging market growth.

The Anglo-Dutch maker of brands like Dove and Knorr is battling high input costs from rising commodity prices such as crude and vegetable oils, and slow growth in developed nations. It also cautioned that emerging market growth has started to slow especially in eastern Europe and Russia.

“The competition is intense, we have seen some moderation in emerging market growth while developed markets remain muted, but we have had a good start to the year and we are becoming more competitive,” finance director Jean-Marc Huet told a briefing.

Unilever, the world’s No. 3 consumer goods group, is holding to its forecast for modest profit margin expansion this year, albeit weighted towards the second half of the year when some of its commodity costs are expected to ease as expensive forward hedges fall away.

“Despite the one-off tailwinds, this reads as a still-strong quarter to us,” said analyst Martin Deboo at brokers Investec.

Unilever Plc shares were up 3.1 pct at 2,143 pence by 0826 GMT, in a firmer FTSE 100 .FTSE. The stock has underperformed European food and beverage stocks by almost 10 percent so far this year.

The company, with annual sales of 46.5 billion euros, reported that first-quarter underlying sales rose 8.4 percent beating a company-compiled forecast of 6.4 percent, and compared to growth of 6.5 percent in 2011.