Variable$-$Interest Entities. Molson Coors Brewing Company $($Molson Coors$)$ is the $$fth$-$largest brewer in the world. It is one of the leading brewers in the United States and Canada; the company$$s brands include Coors, Molson Canadian, Carling, and Killian$$s Irish Red. Molson and Adolph Coors Brewing Company merged in early $2005.$ In the $$nal annual report of Adolph Coors Brewing Company for the year ending December $26,2004,$ sales exceeded $32$ million barrels $(1$ U$.$S$.$ barrel equals $31$ gallons$).$ Coors reported $$4\mathrm{.}3$ billion of net sales for $2004.$ The $$rm invests in various entities to carry out its brewing, bottling, and canning activities. The investments take the legal form of partnerships, joint ventures, and limited liability corporations, among other arrangements. The $$rm states in its $2004$ annual report, issued under the Molson Coors name, that each of these arrangements has been tested to determine whether it quali$$es as a VIE. Note $3.$ Variable$-$Interest Entities. Once an entity is determined to be a VIE, the party with the controlling $$nancial interest, the primary bene$$ciary$,$ is required to consolidate it$.$ We have investments in VIEs, of which we are the primary bene$$ciary$.$ Accordingly, we have consolidated three joint ventures in $2004,$ effective December $29,2003,$ the $$rstday of $2004.$ These include Rocky Mountain Metal Container $($RMMC$),$ Rocky Mountain Bottle Company $($RMBC$),$ and Grolsch $($UK$)$ Limited $($Grolsch$).$ The impacts to our balance sheet include the addition of net $$xed assets of RMMC and RMBC totaling approximately $$65$ million, RMMC debt of approximately $$40$ million, and Grolsch net intangibles of approximately $$20$ million $($at current exchange rates$).$ The most signi$$cant impact to our cash $$ow statement for the year ended December $26,2004,$ was to increase depreciation expense by approximately $$13\mathrm{.}2$ million and cash recognized on initial consolidation of the entities of $$20\mathrm{.}8$ million. Our partners$$ share of the operating results of the ventures is eliminated in the minority interests line of the Consolidated Statements of Income. Molson Coors also provides additional information in its annual report on each of the consolidated joint ventures, as follows: