Kirin snaps up San Miguel's Aussie unit
Kirin Holdings Co, Japan's biggest brewer, agreed to buy San Miguel Corp's Australian dairy and fruit juice unit, as it seeks to make up for dwindling beer sales in its home market.
Kirin will pay about 220 billion yen in cash and assume about 74 billion yen of debt for National Foods, valuing the transaction at 294 billion yen ($2.6 billion), the Tokyo-based company said in a statement yesterday. Kirin, which owns 20 percent of San Miguel, will fund the acquisition with debt, it said.
National Foods is Australia's biggest producer of milk and juice, helping Kirin reduce its dependence on beer sales in Japan. Kirin is making the purchase at a time of rising milk and juice prices, driving up costs at the Australian company.
"It's an audacious move because it comes amidst increases in the prices of raw materials," Junko Miyakawa, an analyst at Shinsei Securities Co in Tokyo, said. "It's consistent with the company's plan to expand overseas."
San Miguel, the largest Philippine food and drinks company, is selling stakes in its main businesses to fund its expansion into the faster-growing mining, energy and property industries.
The Manila-based company acquired National Foods in 2005 for about A$1.9 billion ($1.8 billion). It followed an acquisition spree that started in 2000 to cut the brewer's dependence on the Philippine beer market.
Bloomberg News
(China Daily 11/09/2007 page16)
