The world’s largest brewer outbids Anheuser-Busch and Heineken for one of China’s largest brewers

The New York Times reported that InBev, formed through the merger of AmBev and Interbrew last year, bid about $750 million for state-owned Fujian Sedrin Brewery.

In late August, Fujian Sedrin Brewery offered a 39.48 percent stake up for bid. The brewery has a 60 percent market share of China’s southeastern province beer market and is the eighth-largest brewer in China, according to its Web site.

China produces the most beer in the world, according to the annual Barth Report 2004/2005, producing 291 million hectolitres of beer in 2004/2005. The United States second and Germany was third.

Anheuser-Busch already holds a 27 percent stake in Chinese brewer Tsingtao, which produces the No. 1 beer brand in China and the most well known Chinese beer in the international market. It also holds about 29 percent of Harbin Brewery Group, which produces the Hapi beer brand and is one of the oldest brewers in China, and owns 98 percent of the Budweiser Wuhan International Brewing Co., in Wuhan, China, where Budweiser is brewed.