Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein said he believes that Molson Coors may be considering strategic options for its European operations, given the company's prior assertion that its Europe business would be "structured to allow for standalone operations" as part of its "Revitalization Plan." Ottenstein also notes that Carlsberg's CEO replied on his own company's conference call, when asked about speculation that Molson Coors was considering a review of the business, that "we can only share with you that we heard the same, but obviously, we're not commenting on that." Molson Coors' European business, accounts for about 18% of sales and 15% of EBITDA, said the analyst, who estimates that a sale of the European business could be about 15%-20% accretive to EPS, based on his assumptions about a potential price and use of after-tax proceeds. Ottenstein, who sees potential issues with a sale of Europe being the split ownership of the Miller and Coors brands in these markets and reduced global scale, keeps an Outperform rating on Molson Coors shares.

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