Kirin Holdings Co. will speed up merger talks with Suntory Holdings Ltd. in a bid to secure its footholds in Asia and Oceania as growth opportunities dwindle in the home market, Kirin President Kazuyasu Kato said.
"We will carry out the negotiations with fairness and speed," Kato said in an interview, adding the talks are likely to generate concrete results by the end of this year or early 2010.
Kirin, Japan's second-largest beer maker, and Suntory, the No. 3 brewer, recently began talks for an integration that would create one of the world's largest beverage and food companies with combined consolidated sales of around ¥3.80 trillion.