SABMiller to invest $125 mln in new Angola brewery

LUANDA (Reuters) - World number two brewer SABMiller will invest $125 million in a new brewery and sparkling soft drinks plant in Angola this year to satisfy growing demand for beverages, it said in a statement on Friday.

The London-based brewer of Grolsch, Pilsner and Peroni said the new brewery and soft drinks plant in Luanda would bolster its investment in the southwestern African nation to $250 million in the last 18 months.

"SABMiller remains positive about the potential of the Angolan market and in conjunction with our partners, we are continuing to invest in what will be a bright future for the business," Mark Bowman, managing director of SABMiller Africa, said in a statement.

~Angola's economy has held up well during the global economic crisis and our team on the ground has risen to the challenges posed by supply chain and infrastructural constraints," he added.

The new facility, expected to be complete in October, will boost the number of SABMiller and its joint venture partner Empresa Cervejas de N'gola's breweries and bottling plants in Angola to five.

SABMiller's started off its investment in Angola in 1997 by managing Empresa Cervejas de N'gola in Lubango, a city in the south of Angola, which recently expanded its output capacity to 820,000 hectolitres.

SABMiller has brewing and beverage interests in 32 African countries including Nigeria, a nation of more than 140 million people. It is also one of the largest bottlers of Coca-Cola products in the world.