Heineken, CFAO to build $164 million brewery in Ivory Coast

ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Heineken NV , the world's third largest brewer, and Africa-focused trading firm CFAO will invest 100 billion CFA francs ($163.52 million) to build a brewery in Ivory Coast, a Heineken company official said on Wednesday.

"We'll be operational in a year and a half and I hope that we'll be able to taste a good beer around Christmas, in December 2016," Siep Hiemstra, Heineken's president for Africa and the Middle East, told journalists in the commercial capital Abidjan.

(Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Emma Farge)