Tokyo, Feb 20 - Kirin Holdings, Japan's second-largest brewer, said on Friday it would buy a stake of up to 49 percent in San Miguel Brewery, the Philippines' top brewer, for as much as $1.4 billion to speed up its growth in Asia and Oceania.
The deal adds to a growing list of cross-border acquisitions recently by Japanese companies seeking to expand their global reach against a backdrop of a strong yen.
Kirin, which aims to be the industry leader in the region by 2015, has inked an agreement to buy a 43.3 percent stake in the brewer from Philippine conglomerate San Miguel Corp for 58.9 billion pesos ($1.22 billion) by the end of May.
Kirin aims to buy additional ownership through a tender offer in the open market for 7.8 billion pesos, or 8.841 pesos per share, the same per-share price it would pay the conglomerate.
Shares of San Miguel Brewery, which Kirin says holds a share of about 95 percent of its home market, were changing hands at 9.0 pesos each, at a premium to Kirin's offer price, on Friday.
Kirin also won first rights to negotiate the purchase of San Miguel Corp's overseas beer business, it said.
The Japanese brewer also said it would sell all of the 19.9 percent stake it held in the conglomerate for about 39.6 billion pesos to Philippine investment management firm Q-Tech Alliance Holdings and book a special loss of 26 billion yen ($276.2 million) this year on this transaction.
Kirin shares slipped 0.8 percent to close at 930 yen.