The world’s second-largest brewer, Heineken, overpaid for Distell. While the recent writedown of its SA and Namibian assets is barely more than a rounding error for a €50bn behemoth, it does not send out a good message about SA Inc. 

Heineken announced on Wednesday it had impaired €491m (R10bn) or 16% of its SA business. This is likely to include some of the Distell brands it bought in 2023 and not just the local beer business and the Namibian brewery that produces Windhoek, among others...

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