Asahi Breweries Ltd. said Thursday it will acquire a 19 percent equity stake in an electricity generation company wholly owned by the semigovernmental Electric Power Development Co. (J-Power).
The company, Green Power Aso Co., was set up in July by J-Power in the village of Nishihara in Kumamoto Prefecture. It generates electricity through wind power.
Green Power Aso plans to build a wind-power electricity generation facility in the village and hopes to begin generating power in February 2005.
It will float new shares to inflate its capital by 430 million yen in late September.
Asahi Breweries and J-Power will purchase the new shares, thereby becoming major shareholders in Green Power Aso, the brewer said.
An Asahi Breweries official said, "Our company wants to contribute to promoting the spread of wind-power generation systems whose operations do not involve generating carbon dioxide."