Heineken buys stake in brewer
30 January 2004
Heineken purchased a 21% stake in Guangdong Brewery Holdings for US$71.8 million.
The acquisition was the latest in a string of deals involving foreign beermakers, including Interbrew, SABMiller and Anheuser-Busch, that are buying into the Chinese market.
While the number of breweries in China has dropped by half to 500 in the past five years, the top 10 brewers tripled their market share to 56% in 2002 from 19% in 1997.
