Kirin Holdings Co., the nation's biggest beverage maker, agreed to buy a stake in San Miguel Corp.'s Philippine beer unit for about ¥112 billion.
Kirin announced the purchase of the 43.25 percent stake in San Miguel Brewery Inc. in a statement Friday. Kirin also will sell its 19.9 percent stake in parent San Miguel Corp. for about ¥75.3 billion to Manila-based Q-Tech Alliance Holdings.
The deal gives Kirin direct ownership of the Philippines' biggest brewer and advances President Kazuyasu Kato's goal of doubling the proportion of overseas sales by 2015.
In August, the Tokyo-based brewer said it planned to spend ¥300 billion on acquisitions to maintain growth.
San Miguel Brewery, with 11.4 billion pesos (¥22.2 billion) in sales in the third quarter last year, controls 95 percent of the Philippine beer market. The company completed a 6.16 billion peso (¥12 billion) initial public offering last April.
A sale to Kirin would reduce San Miguel Corp.'s stake in the brewing unit to 51 percent from 94.25 percent, according to Bloomberg calculations.