Tsingtao Brewery and Anheuser-Busch jointly announced that Anheuser-Busch has increased its economic interest in Tsingtao to 27% upon its conversion of all the remaining convertible bonds in Tsingtao.
The Qingdao State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) remains the largest shareholder in Tsingtao, holding a 30.6 percent share. Anheuser-Busch is the largest non-government shareholder.
The request by Anheuser-Busch to convert its remaining Tsingtao bonds (HK$1,135,395,342) to newly issued “H” shares of Tsingtao under the terms of the Strategic Investment Agreement with Tsingtao was approved by Tsingtao’s board today. 248,219,178 newly issued “H” shares of Tsingtao stock listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be issued to Anheuser-Busch. The total capital stock of Tsingtao will increase to 1,308,219,178 shares, 50 percent of which is “H” shares. With this conversion, Anheuser-Busch’s economic interest in Tsingtao increases from 9.9 to 27 percent. Based on the Strategic Investment Agreement between Anheuser-Busch and Tsingtao, the voting rights of 7 percent of the above-mentioned shareholding will be held by the SASAC on trust under a Voting Trust Agreement. Accordingly, Anheuser-Busch’s voting interest in Tsingtao will be 20 percent, and SASAC’s voting interest will be 37.6 percent. Anheuser-Busch retains full economic rights to its 27 percent economic stake.
As a result of the increase in shareholding of Tsingtao, Anheuser-Busch will nominate one additional director to the Tsingtao Brewery board of directors, giving Anheuser-Busch two seats on Tsingtao’s board.
“The shareholding and management structure of the company have been optimized after Tsingtao built a strategic relationship with Anheuser-Busch. The existing board and supervisory directors from Anheuser-Busch have brought new ideas on management to Tsingtao, improving management and technology of Tsingtao, helping the company to achieve the goal of internationalization,” said Li Guirong, the chairman of Tsingtao’s board.
“We have built a strong partnership with Tsingtao as a result of our strategic alliance and the ongoing exchange of best practices being implemented by our on-site team and key management in Tsingtao,” said Patrick T. Stokes, president and chief executive officer, Anheuser-Busch Cos. “This transaction increases our equity stake and reflects our continued confidence in Tsingtao’s position in the China beer industry and our strong relationships with the Tsingtao Brewery management and the City of Qingdao.”
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