Japanese brewer Kirin will buy Mandalay Brewery of Myanmar for an estimated several hundred million yen (several million dollars) in its latest effort to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Oceania region, a newspaper said on February 11.
Kirin will create a local subsidiary to take over the country’s oldest brewery, based in the northern city of Mandalay, from the military-backed Myanmar Economic Holdings (MEHL), the Nikkei business daily said.
The Myanmar Investment Commission is expected to approve the deal soon, it said.
With the planned purchase, Kirin, which bought local market leader Myanmar Brewery in 2015, will control 90 percent of the country’s beer market.
The Japanese company seeks an edge against foreign rivals such as the Netherlands’ Heineken and Denmark’s Carlsberg, in Myanmar, one of the few growing beer markets amid lacklustre momentum in global consumption, the Nikkei said.
The latest deal comes after Kirin expanded business acquisitions in the Asia-Oceania region.
The brewer turned Lion of Australia into a subsidiary in 2009, while it took a 48 percent stake in the beer unit of the Philippines’ San Miguel.
Kirin may also purchase state-owned Saigon Beer Alcohol Beverage, which the Vietnamese government plans to sell, the daily said.
Earlier this month, the Financial Times reported that Kirin has conducted businesses with MEHL subsidiaries and affiliates.
Asked by the newspaper what assurances, if any, it had been given over MEHL’s military ties, Kirin says it has “no concerns at the moment” about their partner, which it described as a “pension fund for military veterans”.
Source: Myanmar Times
