China's biggest brewer, Snow, to buy Kingway
Shenzhen-based brewery to quit beer business to concentrate on being a property developer
The mainland's No 1 beer brewer by sales volume, China Resources Snow Breweries, said yesterday it would buy out the loss-making Kingway Brewery in a 5.38 billion yuan (HK$6.69 billion) deal as part of its expansion plan.
Kingway will reinvent itself as a developer after selling its distribution network and its seven breweries, by redeveloping its Plant 1 site in Buxin, Shenzhen, the only land holding it is not selling as part of the deal, into a retail and commercial complex.
Chen Lang, the chairman of China Resources Enterprise, which owns 51 per cent of China Resources Snow Breweries, said: "We are confident of turning around Kingway's business."
Kingway had issued a profit warning on January 30, saying its losses for last year would increase. It had reported a loss of HK$101.6 million for the first six months of last year, blaming rising raw material costs and intense competition as the reasons.
The sale will help Kingway make an estimated gain of HK$3.49 billion.
Huang Xiaofeng, the chairman of Kingway, said: "We will terminate our beer business and concentrate on the fast-growing property market."
Kingway proposes making a special cash dividend of HK$1.71 billion, or HK$1 per share. It will use 2.42 billion yuan to finance the redevelopment projects and set aside the remaining 1.19 billion yuan to cover land premium and other expenses such as market research, demolition and cleaning up.