Word: beers
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...fitting that the first hostile takeover bid comes for beer, a Chinese market over which foreign companies have long drooled. Even two decades after economic reforms began in 1978, China still had about 800 breweries, most set up by local governments. Only one, Tsingtao, has built a national name. The vast majority, with brands like Celestial Peach and Country Man, stay local and sell their brews for about 25? per bottle. Many recycle damaged bottles so often that they go off like grenades?"beer-bottle explosions were responsible for most of last summer's consumer injuries," says the China Consumers...
...foreigners have been aided by rule changes that make state-run beer companies, and those in many other industries, more open to outside investment. Previously, companies that got listed overseas kept control in state hands by retaining the majority of shares, which couldn't be listed or sold to foreigners. That changed in November 2002, when the government allowed shares still held by listed state-run companies to be sold to foreigners. One of the first to test the new regulation was SABMiller, which paid more than $86 million last year for its initial 29.6% stake in Harbin Brewery. That...
...abundant risks of investing in China, it's not hard to see why SABMiller and A-B are so keen to get their hands on Harbin Brewery. Recent years have seen lackluster sales in the U.S., whereas China has emerged as the world's last great growth market for beer. With SABMiller already owning a stake in another large brewery in a neighboring province, A-B saw the danger that its arch rival might become the region's dominant player...
...That fear heightened in March, when SABMiller bid for an additional 29% of Harbin Brewery's government-owned stock. That would have given SABMiller control of the company and its premium brand, Hapi?potentially a national rival to Budweiser, which A-B also markets as a premium beer...
...Harbin Brewery rejected SABMiller's bid. And, on May 2, A-B itself won the right to buy the shares, which had been sold to an investment group (both transactions await government approval). With the two beer giants now holding roughly equal stakes, something had to give...