Kirin to Buy Australia's Lion Nathan for $4.7 Bil.

 

Lion Nathan Ltd., the Australian brewer of Tooheys and Hahn beers, said Monday its biggest shareholder, Japan’s Kirin Holdings Co., has agreed to buy the 54 percent of Lion it does not already own.

Under the deal, Tokyo-based Kirin will buy the shares at 12.22 Australian dollars ($8.76) each, made up of $11.50 in cash and another 72 cents in dividends, Sydney-based Lion Nathan said in a statement.

The offer values Lion Nathan at AU$6.5 billion ($4.7 billion) on an equity basis, and AU$8.2 billion on an enterprise basis, Lion Nathan said.

“We believe this is a very attractive outcome for Lion Nathan’s non-Kirin shareholders,” Lion Nathan chairman Geoff Ricketts said in the statement. “It is a compelling offer at a significant premium to Lion Nathan’s share price.”

The move represents another step in Kirin’s ambitions to expand and diversify its global operations. Growth in Japan’s food and beverage sector has been sluggish, with a shrinking population eroding the overall customer base. The company hopes to raise its overseas sales ratio to 30 percent by 2015.

In February, Lion Nathan — which also brews Steinlager, Speights and other beers in New Zealand — scrapped a AU$7.6 billion Kirin-backed bid to takeover the Australian unit of The Coca-Cola Company after Coca-Cola rejected the price as too low.

Kirin also announced plans in February to buy a 43 percent take in the brewery unit of Philippine food and beverage conglomerate San Miguel Corp.

4/26/2009 9:23 PM SYDNEY (AP)