Chongqing Brewery issued an announcement on July 26, 2010, saying that it has gained approval from the Trade Unions Congress on selling a 12.25% stake to Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong Limited.
This signals that the largest foreign merger deal in the Chinese beer industry has completed the inner approval procedure.
On June 9, the Shanghai-listed brewer’s largest shareholder Chongqing Beer Group sold a 12.25% stake in the listed brewer to Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong at a total price of CNY 2.385 billion. The move will lift Carlsberg’s holding in the listed brewer to 29.25%, becoming the largest shareholder of the latter. And Chongqing Beer Group still holds a 20% stake in the listed arm to be the second largest shareholder.
Annual report of the listed brewer show that sales of beer hit 1 million kiloliters in 2009, operating revenue hit CNY 2.26 billion, and the market share on the Chongqing market hit more than 80%.
