InBev to buy Fujian brewery
9 December 2005
The world's largest beer producer, InBev, is set to pay US$750 million for Fujian Sedrin Brewery, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the talks. InBev is believed to have outbid rivals Heineken and Anheuser-Busch, of the Netherlands and US respectively, to seal what is poised to be one of the largest acquisitions ever for a foreign company operating in China. Analysts were surprised at the high price as Fujian Sedrin is only the nation's eighth largest brewer and China's beer market is not very profitable. But the last two years have seen the global players snap up assets in China, which recently surpassed the US to become the world's largest beer market.
