The man who beat Singapore's top food company to acquire China's most famous soft-drinks brand is a 27-year-old Hong Kong resident who met the company less than a month before acquiring it.
Mainland press reports yesterday described how Zhang Hai paid 380 million yuan (about HK$356 million) to acquire an 80 per cent share of Guangdong Jianlibao Group, maker of the country's best-known carbonated drink, stealing the deal from Singapore's Tee Yih Jia Food Manufacturing, which had been negotiating a takeover for more than six months.
The ailing Jianlibao is based in Sanshui, in Guangdong, 50km from Guangzhou, and was majority owned by the city government, which sold its share to Mr Zhang.
Mr Zhang, a Shanghai native, emigrated to Hong Kong in 1993, and holds several positions in mainland investment companies. He made the purchase of Jianlibao as vice-president of Zhejiang International Trust and Investment Corp (Zitic).
According to the 21st Business Herald, the Singapore firm was the strong favourite to acquire Jianlibao, after French giant Danone, which has been acquiring Chinese food companies, dropped out of the race.
Tee Yih Jia, the biggest food company in Singapore, had spent six months and US$1 million on a feasibility study and its president, Wei Chenghui, had made several trips to Guangzhou.
Tee Yih Jia signed a preliminary agreement with the Sanshui municipal government on November 20, under which it agreed to purchase 75 per cent of the firm, with an initial down payment of five million yuan, subject to further research into the firm.