Heineken is reportedly in talks to sell its Chinese business to China Resources Beer (CR Beer). It is believed that any deal would be worth more than $1 billion, with CR Beer thought to be seeking to improve the premium end of its portfolio.
CR Beer’s best-known brand, Snow, is the world’s largest selling beer – driven in the most part by domestic sales. Indeed, China is the world’s largest beer market in volume, as the country’s population draws closer to the 1.4 billion mark.
The Dutch brewer, along with its peers, has concentrated recent efforts on improving its performance in Asia. In 2016, Heineken agreed to buy a brewery in Vietnam from Carlsberg, and has been perennially linked with a move for Habeco and Sabeco – the Vietnamese beer companies being privatised by the country’s government.
Outside Asia, the beer giant has begun construction of a $100 million brewery in Mozambique and inaugurated a $500 million renewable energy-powered plant in Chihuahua, Mexico in recent times.
