Boissons du Cameroun’s Guinness Merger Will Reshape Cameroon’s Brewing Industry
The planned combination of Boissons du Cameroun and Guinness Cameroon is no longer just a proposed transaction.
On October 2, shareholders of Boissons du Cameroun approved the absorption of Guinness Cameroon at an extraordinary general meeting in Douala. The transaction is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027, bringing the two companies under a single legal entity.
For Cameroon’s beer market, the move closes another chapter in a deal that began when Castel acquired Guinness Cameroon from Diageo.
It also raises a bigger question: what does a single corporate structure mean for competition in one of Cameroon’s most established consumer industries?
From acquisition to merger
The story began in 2022, when Diageo agreed to sell Guinness Cameroon to Castel Group for £389 million. The transaction was completed in 2023.
Under the arrangement, Castel took control of Guinness Cameroon’s production and nationwide distribution, while Diageo retained the Guinness brand under a licensing agreement.
That acquisition brought Guinness into the same broader corporate group as Boissons du Cameroun, which operates under Castel’s BGI structure.
The latest step is different.
Rather than continuing with two separate Cameroon companies under the same group, Guinness Cameroon will be absorbed by Boissons du Cameroun.
The merger will transfer Guinness Cameroon’s assets and obligations into Boissons du Cameroun and increase the latter’s share capital.
According to the terms approved by shareholders, SABC’s capital will rise from about CFAF57.36 billion to CFAF75.47 billion. The number of shares will increase from 5.74 million to roughly 7.55 million.
Castel’s position will become even stronger
The transaction also changes the ownership structure of the surviving company.
BGI, the Castel Group subsidiary that controls Boissons du Cameroun, held 84.12% of SABC at the end of 2025 and owned 100% of Guinness Cameroon.
Because the new SABC shares issued in the merger are expected to go to Guinness Cameroon’s shareholder, BGI’s stake in the enlarged Boissons du Cameroun is projected to rise to roughly 87.9%, assuming the ownership structure has not changed since the end of 2025.
Other shareholders would therefore see their combined stake fall from about 15.9% to roughly 12.1%, not because they are selling shares, but because of the new shares created through the merger.
That is an important distinction.
The transaction is not simply about putting Guinness and SABC operations under one management structure. It also further concentrates ownership of Cameroon’s largest brewing business.
Two different financial stories
The merger comes at an interesting point for the two businesses.
Boissons du Cameroun was profitable in 2025, reporting CFAF483.2 billion in revenue and CFAF50.6 billion in net profit, according to financial information reported around the transaction.
Guinness Cameroon, by contrast, recorded revenue of approximately CFAF90.7 billion in 2025 but ended the year with a CFAF1.26 billion net loss.
The figures do not necessarily mean that Guinness is an unsuccessful brand.
Guinness remains one of the most recognisable beer brands in Cameroon, and its integration into Castel's wider production and distribution network was one of the reasons behind the original acquisition.
But the numbers show that the merger is happening against different financial positions within the same corporate group.
For Boissons du Cameroun, the challenge will be to integrate the business without losing the commercial strength of the Guinness brand.
What happens to competition?
This is where the merger becomes more significant for the wider market.
The combination further strengthens Castel's position in Cameroon’s brewing industry. EcoMatin reported that Boissons du Cameroun already accounts for close to 80% of the beer market.
That level of concentration makes competition an important issue.
The Guinness acquisition was approved by CEMAC and Cameroon’s competition authorities in 2023, subject to commitments covering areas such as investment, local production, distribution and employment.
In July 2026, CEMAC and Cameroon’s competition authorities carried out a third annual assessment of those commitments. The authorities said the implementation was progressing satisfactorily, although updated figures on investment, employment and additional production capacity were not publicly provided.
The merger therefore does not remove the need for regulatory oversight.
If anything, the larger combined operation makes that oversight more relevant.
What the merger could mean for production
There is also a practical industrial side to the transaction.
When Castel acquired Guinness Cameroon, the company said the deal would provide Guinness with access to Castel’s broader brewing and distribution network. Diageo had previously identified capacity constraints at Guinness Cameroon’s existing brewery and said the transaction would provide greater production capacity and reach.
Boissons du Cameroun has since described the integration of Guinness as part of a wider industrial plan.
The company has previously said that the acquisition would help it expand production capacity and potentially produce Guinness in different parts of the country.
A single corporate structure could make investment and production planning easier.
It could also allow the group to combine procurement, logistics, distribution and other functions that were previously spread across separate legal entities.
But those potential efficiencies will matter only if they translate into stronger operations, more reliable supply and continued investment.
Consumers will be watching too
For consumers, the legal structure of the companies may seem distant from the everyday beer market.
What matters more is what happens to prices, product availability, distribution and choice.
Guinness will continue to operate as a major brand in Cameroon, but it will now sit within a more consolidated corporate structure alongside the country's dominant brewer.
The question is whether the merger produces efficiencies that benefit the business without reducing competitive pressure in the market.
That balance will be particularly important as Cameroon’s beverage sector faces broader pressures, including rising operating costs, changing consumer preferences and the need for manufacturers to invest in local production.
A bigger company, but also a bigger responsibility
The Guinness-SABC merger is the latest stage in Castel's expansion of its beverage operations in Cameroon.
The financial numbers show why the transaction matters. SABC enters the merger from a strong profit position, while Guinness brings a major international brand and a sizeable revenue base but recorded a loss in 2025.
The combined company will have greater scale and an even stronger position in the local brewing market.
That scale creates opportunities: better production planning, broader distribution, stronger investment capacity and potentially greater economies of scale.
It also creates responsibilities.
With a larger share of the market concentrated within one corporate group, regulators, competitors and consumers will have a close interest in how the new structure operates.
Final Thoughts
The absorption of Guinness Cameroon by Boissons du Cameroun is more than a corporate housekeeping exercise.
It completes the structural integration of two businesses that have already been operating under the same wider Castel ownership since the Guinness acquisition.
From January 2027, the market will begin to see what the new structure actually delivers.
For Castel, the priority will be turning greater scale into stronger performance. For regulators, the focus will remain on competition and compliance with the commitments attached to the original acquisition.
And for consumers, the simplest test will be whether the merger leads to better products and distribution without leaving them with fewer meaningful choices.
Cameroon Business Review will continue to track the financial, competitive and industrial effects of the merger as the January 2027 integration approaches.
