Ghana Breweries Limited (GBL), the Heineken subsidiary company, held its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Kumasi where their KBL brewery is situated.

Accordingly the Chairman was pleased to announce that the merger had resulted in the company now having 49% share of the beer market and 67% of the lager market. GBL has moved from a loss making position last year to one of considerable profit this year though no dividends were declared.

Additional investment will be made to upgrade equipment and process technology at the Achimota Brewery and this is the main reason why no dividends were declared, as the company will need over ?24 billion to complete an aggressive rehabilitation program. This will be financed by internally generated funds and financing from Heineken BV.

Extracts from the company's financials are as follows for Turnovers: 1998 - ?53.54 billion and 1997 -?40.9 billion.