CR Snow Acquires Shandong Brewer
HONG KONG, Mar 13, 2009 -- China Resources Snow Breweries Limited, SABMiller's joint venture in China with China Resources Enterprise, said Friday it has agreed to acquire the brewing assets of Shandong Hupo Brewery through the formation of a joint venture in which it will initially own a 90% equity interest.
CR Snow will acquire the remaining 10% within three years after the joint venture is formed. The total cash consideration for the acquisitions amounts to approximately $42 million.
Hupo Brewery is situated in Zouping county, northern Shandong Province. More beer is consumed in Shandong Province than any other province in China, and Zouping county serves as a transportation hub to neighboring major cities such as Binzhou, Jinan, Zibo and Dongying.
The Shandong-based brewery has an annual production capacity of 2.7 million hectoliters and upon completion of the acquisition, approximately $8 million will be spent on technology upgrades to the existing facilities in order to increase its capacity to 3 million hectoliters and ensure the production requirements are sufficient to produce the brand SNOW.
Last month, CR Snow announced that it had agreed to acquire three breweries in each of Anhui, Liaoning and Zhejiang Provinces in three separate transactions.