Kirin to purchase more stakes in Southeast Asian companies as it sees economic potential

Kirin Holdings Co. is driven to buy more stakes from companies in the Southeast Asia as it sees market potential across the regions. Kirin targets Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam.

According to a news from Bloomberg, Kirin Holdings, which controls Japan-based Kirin Brewery Company, is planning to invest more in Southeast Asian companies after it lost its stake in F&N two years ago. So far, analysts observe that the Southeast Asia shows a stable economic growth.

"It has been frustrating especially since we sold our shares in F&N," Kirin's managing director Hiroshi Fujikawa confirms they are watching the market and will be more aggressive to buy stakes around the Southeast.

Kirin acquired Fraser & Neave's stake for $560M when the sales of beer consumption in Japan dropped. They gave up bidding for F&N, selling its 15% stake to Thai billionaire, Charoen Sirivadhanabhakdi in 2013, cited on The Financial Times.

In the same way, the managing director for Growth Strategy and M&A in ASEAN Bruce Nicolas Delteil revealed his insights in Nikkei Asian Review, "Southeast Asia's long-term growth potential as a consumer market and production base will likely attract even more investment from Japanese companies."

He also assessed that China's economic slowdown had a huge effect for Japanese companies. It led them to either purchase assets at a markdown price, or to seek neighboring countries to gain profit.

Fujikawa perceives they would have to keep up and adapt to the changing economy. Apparently, he had just made his largest acquisition last month when he purchased Myanmar Brewery. He also plans to spend another $100M to raise beer production in Myanmar as the beer sales is predicted to rise in the next three years.

At this point, Kirin gained 3.6% and was up by 2.5% at the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The company is seeking Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia because of its large populations.