Chongqing Brewery Group Gets No Bid for Non-Listed Assets

CHONGQING, Nov 24, 2011 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) —
Chongqing Brewery Group Ltd., the parent of Shanghai-listed Chongqing Brewery Co., Ltd., received none of bids for its non-listed brewery assets in East China.

Chongqing Brewery Group listed these assets for sale on Chongqing United Assets and Equity Exchange for a minimum price of CNY 2.389 billion. The unsatisfactory asset quality and disperse layout of breweries packaged in these assets forced potential buyers like Tsingtao Brewery Co., Ltd. and China Resources Breweries Co., Ltd. to exit.

Carlsberg, the World’s fourth-largest brewer, did not bid for the assets at all. Carlsberg, through Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong Limited, took over a 12.25% stake in Chongqing Brewery Co. from Chongqing Brewery Group in late 2010, when it made a commitment to participate in bidding for Chongqing Brewery Group’s non-listed brewery assets as well as to remove its China headquarters to Chongqing.

Chongqing Light Industry Textile Holding (Group) Co., Ltd., the parent of Chongqing Brewery Group, and State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Chongqing this August allocated Chongqing Brewery Group’s assets and liabilities of all seven breweries in western China to Chongqing Xinghui Investment free of charge. Then Chongqing Brewery Group injected its 100% stake in Chongqing Brewery Panzhihua Co. and 85.75% stake in Hunan Chongqing Brewery Grandmen Co., which were valued at CNY 349 million, into Chongqing Xinghui Investment to take a 51.42% stake. In the meantime, Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong Limited bought a 30% stake in Chongqing Xinghui Investment at CNY 203.83 million equivalent foreign exchange. After these moves, Chongqing Light Industry Textile Holding (Group) Co.’s stake in Chongqing Xinghui Investment reduced to 18.58% from 100%.

Plus the 17.46% stake in Chongqing Brewery Co. held by Carlsberg’s wholly owned subsidiary Carlsberg Chongqing Limited, Carlsberg now takes a combined 29.71% stake in the listed brewery as the largest shareholder.

Chongqing Brewery Group’s high-quality western brewery assets in western China can promote synergy of Carlsberg’s current breweries in western China. Moreover, the access into these assets is more cost efficient than public bidding for the eastern brewery assets.

Shanghai-listed Chongqing Brewery Co. said on November 23 that the clinical practice of its subsidiary Chongqing Jiachen Bio-engineering Co.’s independently developed hepatitis B vaccine made by synthetic peptide for therapeutic use will be acknowledgeable on November 27. So the listed company will suspend the share trading from November 28 to December 2 and resume the trading after publishing related information on December 5.

A shares of Chongqing Brewery Co. closed up the daily limit at CNY 75.56 per share on November 24.

Source: www.yicai.com (November 24, 2011)

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