---
title: "China Resources Beer, Now Fully Owned, Kicks Off M&A Spree with €5 Billion Bid for Eastern European Brands"
description: "According to Reuters, five bidders, including China Resources, have advanced to the second round of bidding for SABMiller's Central European beer brands, with offers exceeding €5 billion (approximately RMB 36.82 billion). The assets include Czech Pilsner Urquell and Polish Tyskie and Lech, and other bidders include Asahi Group Holdings, Bain Capital, Advent International, PPF Group, and Jacobs Holding AG."
author: "界面新闻"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2016-11-16"
language: "en"
canonical: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/china-resources-beer-now-fully-owned-kicks-off-m-a-spree-with-5-billion-14d73cf4/"
markdown: "https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/china-resources-beer-now-fully-owned-kicks-off-m-a-spree-with-5-billion-14d73cf4.md"
original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/3zeUy22cuTj1n7SJLw2kKw"
translation: "https://xinjignxiao.com/zh/articles/%E5%AE%9E%E7%8E%B0%E7%8B%AC%E8%B5%84%E7%9A%84%E5%8D%8E%E6%B6%A6%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92%E5%BC%80%E5%90%AF%E5%B9%B6%E8%B4%AD%E6%A8%A1%E5%BC%8F-50%E4%BA%BF%E6%AC%A7%E5%85%83%E7%AB%9E%E8%B4%AD%E4%B8%9C%E6%AC%A7%E5%93%81%E7%89%8C-14d73cf4.md"
attribution: "New Distribution — https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/china-resources-beer-now-fully-owned-kicks-off-m-a-spree-with-5-billion-14d73cf4/"
usage_policy: "https://xinjignxiao.com/ai-policy.txt"
---

# China Resources Beer, Now Fully Owned, Kicks Off M&A Spree with €5 Billion Bid for Eastern European Brands

> According to Reuters, five bidders, including China Resources, have advanced to the second round of bidding for SABMiller's Central European beer brands, with offers exceeding €5 billion (approximately RMB 36.82 billion). The assets include Czech Pilsner Urquell and Polish Tyskie and Lech, and other bidders include Asahi Group Holdings, Bain Capital, Advent International, PPF Group, and Jacobs Holding AG.

> According to Reuters, five bidders, including Chinese conglomerate China Resources, have entered the second round of bidding for SABMiller's Central European beer brands, with offers exceeding €5 billion (approximately RMB 36.82 billion).

Sources say the assets for sale are the Czech Pilsner Urquell and the Polish Tyskie and Lech, formerly owned by SABMiller. The second-round bidders include Japan's Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. (2502.TO), a joint bid by private equity firms Bain Capital and Advent International, PPF Group (a financial investment group founded in the Czech Republic but now based in the Netherlands), China Resources, and Zurich-based Jacobs Holding AG, backed by Canadian pension fund PSP Investments.

Following the merger with SABMiller last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, had to divest some assets to gain antitrust approval, including the three European beer brands. AB InBev priced these assets at €5 billion, but sources say all five bidders have offered significantly more.

Both the Czech Republic and Poland are major beer-consuming countries with sustained growth. The Czech Republic has the highest per capita beer consumption in the world, and Pilsner Urquell holds a 40% market share there. Tyskie is one of the world's oldest beer brands, with a history dating back to 1629. Another Polish brand, Lech, set a Guinness World Record in 2007 when it built the world's largest beer glass, with a capacity of 4,250 liters, to celebrate the opening of a new brewery; 10,625 people shared the beer.

China Resources Beer (00291.HK), formerly China Resources Enterprise, sold its non-beer businesses to its parent China Resources Group in the second half of last year. In March this year, China Resources Beer announced it would acquire the 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries held by SABMiller from AB InBev for $1.6 billion (approximately RMB 10.5 billion), gaining full ownership of the world's best-selling single beer brand.

China Resources Beer currently ranks first in market share in China. Many analysts believe that with the premiumization of China's beer market and lower commodity prices, China Resources Beer will maintain its advantage in the Chinese market, but its weakness lies in the lack of strong global brands. In its interim report this year, China Resources Beer stated it would continue to explore business expansion opportunities through organic growth and industry mergers and acquisitions. Since its inception, China Resources Beer has been known for its M&A and integration strategy.

Asahi is the most aggressive "buyer" following the AB InBev-SABMiller merger. The Japanese brewer has already offered $2.8 billion (approximately RMB 19.11 billion) to acquire Grolsch from the Netherlands and Peroni from Italy, both formerly owned by SABMiller. If successful, this would be Asahi's largest overseas acquisition. Adding the mainstream Czech and Polish brands would further expand Asahi's influence in the European market.

All parties involved declined to comment on the reports. Sources say AB InBev hopes to finalize a buyer before Christmas.


---

## Copyright and AI use

This article is sourced from New Distribution. Search, quotation, summarization, and model training are permitted, but every use must credit New Distribution and retain the canonical source URL.

Contact: zhaobo258@gmail.com · +86 158 5481 7671