Largest beer producer to buy Chinese brewer
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2005-12-09 13:50

The world's largest beer producer, Brussels-based Inbev has won a contested bidding war and will acquire a state-owned brewer for up to $750 million, the New York Times has reported.

The deal to acquire the producer, Fujian Sedrin Brewery, is one of the largest foreign purchases of a Chinese company.

It represents the latest push into China by the world's biggest beer makers, which have been aggressively competing to buy assets and win stakes in the nation's fragmented yet fast-growing beer market.

Marianne Amssoms, a spokeswoman for InBev declined to comment on the negotiations for Fujian Sedrin. Officials at Fujian Sedrin could not be reached for comment, the newspaper said.

But people briefed on the deal said InBev had recently outbid Heineken, based in the Netherlands and Anheuser-Busch, based in the United States, to win the right to take complete control of Fujian Sedrin, a state-owned brewery based in one of China's wealthiest coastal provinces.