State firm seeking options for Snow beer unit

China Resources Beer (Holdings) Co will soon ask investment banks to pitch for a role advising on options for its Chinese brewery joint venture with SABMiller Plc, people with knowledge of the matter said.

The State-backed company is seeking advisers as it weighs a potential purchase of all or part of SABMiller's 49 percent stake in China Resources Snow Breweries Co, the maker of Snow, the world's best-selling beer, the people said. China Resources has told banks it will send out a formal request for proposals as early as this week, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is private.

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV may need to sell the stake in the brewer of Snow lager to secure Chinese antitrust approval for its 73.5 billion pound ($110 billion) acquisition of SABMiller, which will create a beermaker controlling about half the industry's profits. SABMiller's stake in the Chinese venture could fetch as much as $3.6 billion, Nomura Holdings Inc wrote in a research report.