Carlsberg baulks at Vietnam's Habeco share price

Hanoi

CARLSBERG A/S, the Danish brewer that wants to buy a majority stake in Hanoi Beer Alcohol Beverage Corp, said a surge in the Vietnamese company's share price has been fuelled by speculative buying, setting the stage for heated negotiations in South-east Asia's fastest-growing beer market.

A near tripling of Habeco's price since its Oct 28 listing on Vietnam's regulated over-the-counter exchange doesn't accurately reflect the underlying value of the business as it's "mainly due to speculative buying on very thin volume", Tayfun Uner, chief executive officer of Carlsberg Vietnam, said.