Monday July 13, 01:51 AM
Japan's Kirin, Suntory in merger talks: report
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese drinks companies Kirin Holdings (Frankfurt: 853682 - news) and Suntory are negotiating a merger that would create one of the world's largest beverages makers, a report has said.
Kirin Holdings Co. and Suntory Holdings Ltd. aim to ink an agreement this year, the Nikkei (news) business daily reported without naming its sources.
The merged entity would be the largest in both the Japanese beer and soft drink markets with combined group sales of 3.8 trillion yen (410 billion dollars), it said.
The holding company would be bigger than Belgian-based Anheuser-Busch InBev and Coca-Cola Co. of the United States and on a par with US food and beverage giants PepsiCo Inc. and Kraft Foods Inc., it said.
Kirin (006070.KS - news) and Suntory hope to strengthen their domestic earnings bases and accelerate expansion in growing overseas markets with the merger, it said.
Kirin said in a statement that while the two companies had cooperated on certain aspects of their businesses, there had been no decision on a tie-up.
"We have cooperated with Suntory in distribution, procurement and many other fields but nothing concrete has been decided regarding such a business merger as reported," the company said in a statement.
A Suntory spokeswoman said it was checking the report but offered no other immediate comment.
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