by Bernardo Lopez - FoodBizDaily.com
February 08 2010 - Japan’s largest beverage company, Kirin Holdings Co., will not be buying Suntory Holdings Ltd. A move that would of made Kirin the world’s fifth largest food maker had they not drawn back from the $10 billion asking price. Reports on why they would not take the offer say Suntory had asked a stake of at least 33.4% in the merge, which would have given Suntory the ability to veto power takeovers and other major decisions.
Kazuyasu Kato, Kirin’s President, spent $7 billion expanding the company overseas in the past three years, despite Kirin shares having fallen the most in the past 15 months, falling 7.4%, the most since October of 2008.
“The merged company would have had more scale to pursue its expansion in the rest of Asia, where domestic demand is stronger,” said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees about $450 million at Tokyo-based Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. “Kirin needs to strengthen its foundations through acquisitions.”
Suntory wanted 0.9%of a share for every Kirin shared had they merged, according to an anonymous Suntony executive. “It would have been difficult to create a new company as there were differences in opinions, including the merger ratio,” he added.
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Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
Address: 2-10-1, Shinkawa Chuo-ku, TKY 104-8288 Japan
Telephone: +81-3-55403455
Fax: +81-3-55403547
About Kirin Holdings Company, Limited
irin Holdings Company, Limited is a Japan-based holding company engaged in the manufacture and sale of alcohol beverages and soft drinks. The Company has four business divisions. The Alcohol Beverage division is engaged in the manufacture and sale of beer, sparkling liquor and new alcohol beverage products, as well as the manufacture and sale of wines, the import of alcohol drinks, in addition to the automobile transportation and food industry-related engineering businesses. The Beverage division manufactures and sells soft drinks, milk, dairy products, mineral water, fruit juice and seasonings. The Pharmaceutical division is involved in the manufacture and sale of pharmaceutical products as well as the research and development of pharmaceutical products. The Others division is engaged in the flower-related business. The Company has 372 subsidiaries and 26 associated companies. In May 2009, the Company sold its 19.91% interest in Sold San Miguel Corporation.
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Suntory Holdings Limited
Address: 2-1-40, Dojimahama, Kita-ku Osaka, 530-8203 JPN
Telephone: +81-6-6346-1131
Fax: +81-6-6345-1169
About Suntory Holdings Limited
Japan-based Suntory Holdings is a 100-year-old firm best known for producing Japan's first whiskey, Kakubin. Today it is comprised of a large number of subsidiaries around the world that do everything from distill whiskey to grow flowers. The company has three main areas of operation: alcoholic beverage production (including MIDORI melon-flavored liqueur); health food and supplement and non-alcoholic beverage production; and running restaurant, fitness, and flower operations. It is the Japanese distributor of Häagen-Dazs ice cream and runs a number of Pepsi bottling businesses in Japan. The company is talks with Kirin Holdings about the possibility of merging the two companies.