South Korea: Hite Brewery to sell Jinro stake to a Morgan Stanley fund

Hite Brewery Co., South Korea's top brewery, said on Friday, 23 September 2005 it would give up its majority control of liquor maker Jinro by selling a 10 % stake to a Morgan Stanley fund for 250 billion Won (US$243 million), according to Reuters.

The sale, which came less than three months after a group led by Hite bought Jinro for $3.4 billion in South Korea's biggest acquisition, will enable Hite to pay back its maturing debt and strengthen its financial base, the beer maker said.

Hite, which is 25 percent owned by Denmark's Calsberg , said stake in Jinro would fall to 41.85 percent from the current 52 percent after selling 31.25 million Jinro shares to Morgan Stanley Emerging Markets Inc. on Sept. 30. "From the beginning, our original plan was to hold about 41 percent stake and we felt it was relatively burdensome for us to hold the 52 percent stake," You Kyoung-jong, an official at Hite, said by telephone. "We may use the proceeds to pay back debt owed to financial companies." Even after the sale, Hite will still remain the biggest shareholder in Jinro, he added.

A group led by Hite Brewery bought Jinro, which controls half of the South Korea's $2 billion market for the traditional drink soju, for $3.4 billion in June. It was the country's biggest acquisition since Standard Chartered purchased Korea First Bank for $3.3 billion early this year and paved the way for Hite to have dominant position in both beer and soju market.

The acquisition battle for 81-year-old Jinro was one of few major merger and acquisition deals since the Asian financial crisis sent South Korea's government to the brink of bankruptcy. Jinro's parent group ran into trouble during the 1990s by expanding into unrelated businesses such as retail, financial and construction. (US$1=1028.0 Won)

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