G Heileman Brewing Co Inc

The potent malt liquor has yet to hit the market shelves, but already it's raising a furor throughout the country. A national boycott of G. Heileman Brewing Co. products is being organized in at least six major U.S. cities. But so far, the troubled brewer isn't budging from its plans to target its new high-alcohol malt liquor toward blacks--and to name it PowerMaster.

The investment firm Hicks, Muse & Co. said Monday that it is buying G. Heileman Brewing Co., the fifth-largest U.S. brewer, for $390 million. Hicks Muse said it has signed a definitive agreement with Heileman, which is privately held. The deal is expected to be completed by mid-January. Heileman, based in La Crosse, Wis., has a 5% share of the U.S. beer market, with 1993 sales estimated at $900 million.

G. Heileman Brewing Co. is introducing a malt liquor similar in content to the brewer's high-alcohol PowerMaster, which was rejected by federal regulators last year, a government spokesman said Monday. The company denied that the product was the same. But a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Heileman's latest malt liquor, Colt 45 Premium, is the same formula as the brewer's rejected product. "Our information is this was the new label for the product PowerMaster.

Analysts paint a bleak future for G. Heileman Brewing Co., the nation's fifth-largest brewer and a big holding in the troubled empire of Australian industrialist Alan Bond. Bond on Tuesday unveiled a complex series of corporate maneuvers, including the planned sale of half his Australian brewery holdings, aimed at dealing with problems posed by the reported $4.6-billion debt that he ran up building a brewing, natural resources and media empire.

"PowerMaster" cannot be used as the name of G. Heileman Brewing Co.'s new malt liquor because it sounds too much like an advertisement for its high alcohol content, the government said Monday. The decision by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is a reversal of the agency's earlier approval of the name. Spokesman Tom Hill said the bureau decided that the name alludes to the beverage's 5.9% alcohol content, compared to the 5.

Surgeon General Antonia C. Novello on Tuesday called on the marketer of a potent new malt liquor beverage named PowerMaster to change the product's name and scrap a sales campaign that appears targeted at minority consumers. PowerMaster is a high-alcohol drink that has drawn criticism from health and minority activists, who charge that its maker plans to promote it to poor blacks and Latinos. The product, made by the G. Heileman Brewing Co.

The potent malt liquor has yet to hit the market shelves, but already it's raising a furor throughout the country. A national boycott of G. Heileman Brewing Co. products is being organized in at least six major U.S. cities. But so far, the troubled brewer isn't budging from its plans to target its new high-alcohol malt liquor toward blacks--and to name it PowerMaster.

Analysts paint a bleak future for G. Heileman Brewing Co., the nation's fifth-largest brewer and a big holding in the troubled empire of Australian industrialist Alan Bond. Bond on Tuesday unveiled a complex series of corporate maneuvers, including the planned sale of half his Australian brewery holdings, aimed at dealing with problems posed by the reported $4.6-billion debt that he ran up building a brewing, natural resources and media empire.

G. Heileman Brewing Co. is introducing a malt liquor similar in content to the brewer's high-alcohol PowerMaster, which was rejected by federal regulators last year, a government spokesman said Monday. The company denied that the product was the same. But a spokesman with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said Heileman's latest malt liquor, Colt 45 Premium, is the same formula as the brewer's rejected product. "Our information is this was the new label for the product PowerMaster.

The Wisconsin Assembly on Wednesday passed two anti-takeover measures designed to thwart a $1.01-billion bid by Australia's Bond Corp. Holdings Ltd.'s for G. Heileman Brewing Co., a La Crosse, Wis.-based brewer that is the nation's fourth largest. The two measures were later debated in the state Senate, where approval was expected late Wednesday, according to Senate majority leader Joseph Strohl.

Bond Negotiating to Acquire Stroh: Bond Corp. Holdings Ltd. Chairman Alan Bond said his Australian brewing conglomerate is negotiating to buy at least part of Detroit-based Stroh Brewing, a privately held company that is the No. 3 U.S. beer producer. But a stumbling block remains because Bond is seeking a controlling interest of Stroh and the Stroh family has said it wants to sell only a minority interest. Bond, a yachtsman whose debt-laden Bond Holdings has been attempting to weather a recent credit-rating cut and poor results, said he would merge his Lacrosse, Wis.-based G. Heileman Brewing Co. with Stroh if the negotiations succeed.