Five months after considering a sale of as much as 20% of the company, India’s B9 Beverages is in the process of selling a minority stake in the New Delhi-based company for $30 million to Tokyo, Japan-headquartered Kirin Holdings, according to the Financial Times and Reuters.
The Financial Times reported that Kirin’s investment would net it a “high single-digit percentage” of the company and mark its first foray into India.
In August 2020, B9 Beverages CEO Ankur Jain told Reuters that his company was looking for a partner that wasn’t currently competitive in India or that had minimal operations in India. At that time, Reuters reported that Kirin was in talks with the company, which was 45% owned by Sequoia Capital and 30% owned by Jain’s family.
According to Reuters, the Bira 91 brand has struggled in recent years, but Kirin’s investment will help the brand break even in fiscal year 2022, which begins in April 2021. Among the plans moving forward, Jain told Reuters, is to begin selling Bira’s offerings in Japan later this year.
The investment in B9 Beverages comes a little more than a year after Kirin-owned, Australian-based Lion Little World Beverage acquired New Belgium Brewing Company. The acquisition of the Fort Collins, Colorado-based craft brewery is expected to be the first in the company’s effort to build a U.S. platform.
In October 2016, Kirin acquired a 24.5 percent stake in the Brooklyn Brewery.
Bira 91 launched in February 2015 and found headway by reaching millennial consumers in India who didn’t identify with macro brands and were looking for a craft offering.
“We see a big opening for a global craft brand,” Jain told Brewbound in 2017. “Bira 91 is a more youthful brand, and something that we think can work well globally, which has always been the intent.”