Feb 8th - Asahi Breweries To Double M&A Spending

Asahi Breweries Ltd. plans to spend up to 400 billion yen on mergers and acquisitions in the two years through 2012, double the amount spent in the previous two years.

The major beer maker is stepping up M&As to gain sales momentum ahead of its transition to a holding company structure in July. Asahi has been conducting huge buyouts in recent years, including the acquisition of an Australian soft drink maker for 77 billion yen in 2009.

Asahi Group Holdings, to be set up on July 1, will oversee Asahi's liquor, soft drink and food companies, as well as a firm managing all of the current foreign units.

Asahi aims to boost group sales to 2-2.5 trillion yen by fiscal 2015 from about 1.48 trillion yen in fiscal 2010, in the hope of becoming a global top 10 food maker.