Kirin Holdings is considering withdrawing from the soft drink manufacturing business in China by selling its shares in a joint venture that manufactures and sells soft drinks in China as part of a review of its overseas business to increase profitability. I found out that I was doing it.

Kirin Holdings established “Huajun Kirin Beverage” in 2011 as a joint venture with a major Chinese beverage company to manufacture and sell its own brand of soft drinks.



According to people familiar with the matter, Kirin is considering selling all of its 40% stake in the joint venture to a Chinese fund.



The company says, "We are considering various options for optimizing our business, and we are discussing the sale of shares as one of them." The sale amount is expected to be around 100 billion yen.



If the shares are sold, we will withdraw from the soft drink manufacturing business in China, but the beer manufacturing and sales business conducted by our local subsidiary will continue.



Kirin is reviewing its overseas business, such as selling its soft drink and milk drink business in Australia, where profits were sluggish, to a major local dairy product manufacturer for more than 40 billion yen last year.



The move to sell shares this time is part of this review, and it seems that the aim is to concentrate overseas management resources in fields such as craft beer, which are more profitable in the future.