Asahi Breweries to Acquire P&N Beverages of Australia for $323 Million
Asahi Will Acquire P&N Beverages for A$364 Million
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Naoki Izumiya, president of Asahi Breweries Ltd., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo.
Naoki Izumiya, president of Asahi Breweries Ltd., speaks during a news conference in Tokyo. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
Asahi Breweries Ltd., Japan’s second-largest beermaker, will pay A$364 million ($323 million) in cash for soft-drink maker P&N Beverages as it builds on last year’s acquisition of Cadbury Plc’s Australian drinks unit.
The takeover of Australia’s third-largest soft-drink maker will be completed by November, Tokyo-based Asahi said in a statement today. Closely held P&N Beverages had sales of A$385 million in the year ended June 30 for its Frantelle Spring Water, Extra Juicy, Waterfords Mineral Water and other brands.
Asahi, which is among the companies reported to be interested in bidding for Foster’s Group Ltd.’s beer business, has been expanding overseas as the Japanese beer market has contracted 16 percent since its peak in 1994. The Super Dry brewer said in December it may spend as much as 400 billion yen ($4.7 billion) buying companies in Japan and abroad.
“Australia is a good place for investment as its economy is stable,” said Yasuhiro Matsumoto, a senior analyst at Shinsei Securities Co. in Tokyo. “Still, Asahi should look for more targets in emerging markets for growth.”
Asahi, which had been trading as much as 1.2 percent lower today, rose after the acquisition was reported by the Australian Financial Review. The stock closed 0.5 percent higher at 1,592 yen in Tokyo.
The Japanese beverage maker plans to combine P&N with its Schweppes soft-drink business in Australia that it bought last year for 550 million pounds ($855 million) from Cadbury.
The acquisition will increase annual Australian sales to more than 100 billion yen.
Australian Market
“We regard our Australian soft -drink business as one of our core overseas businesses,” President Naoki Izumiya told reporters in Tokyo today.
Asahi plans to boost sales 33 percent to at least 2 trillion yen by 2015 from an estimated 1.5 trillion yen in 2010, the company said in April. The beverage maker is looking for targets in countries including India, Indonesia and Russia to increase its overseas sales proportion by almost fourfold in five years, Izumiya has said.
Kirin Holdings Co., Asahi’s larger Japanese rival, last month agreed to pay S$1.34 billion ($989 million) for Temasek Holdings Pte’s 14.7 percent holding in Fraser & Neave Ltd.
To contact the reporter on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.net
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