Beer company Cobra put on sale for 200 million pounds

LONDON: Indian entrepreneur Lord Karan Bilimoria has put Cobra, the beer company he founded 18 years ago, up for sale for an estimated 200 million pounds.

The company, famous for supplying beer to most of the 10,000 odd curry houses in Britain, said in a statement that its board has appointed Rothschild "to assist with planning for the next stage of its development".

"Cobra beer is looking at a strategic partnership or a sale in order to achieve the full potential of the business," it said.

The decision to sell the company comes shortly after Cobra raised 15 million pounds of fresh capital through private placement of equity to fund expansion.

Bilimoria, in an interview last week had said that he had been approached by Diageo, the world's biggest spirits producer, for a stake in Cobra but the talks failed.

Cobra remains one of the top 15 beer brands in the UK and is growing rapidly in the Indian market, where the company plans to increase capacity to 10 million cases in the next four years from 1.75 million cases now.

Investors, including Bilimoria, provided the funding after the failure of talks to sell a stake to Diageo.

Although Cobra is yet to make a profit, it remains one of the UK's fastest growing beer brands in a market that is in overall decline.

At the retail front, Cobra has sales of 177.6 million pounds. The brand has grown by 28 per cent in the last year, according to data research firm AC Nielsen, and analysts suggest the company could be worth around 200 million pounds.