Tsingtao

Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the production, distribution, wholesale, and retail sale of beer products worldwide. It operates through seven segments: Shandong Region; South China Region; North China Region; East China Region; Southeast China Region; Hong Kong, Macau and Other Overseas Region; and Finance Company. The company sells its beer products primarily under the Tsingtaoand and Laoshan brand names. It also provides wealth management, and agency collection and payment services; and financing, construction, and logistics services, as well as technology promotion and application services. The company was founded in 1903 and is headquartered in Qingdao, the People's Republic of China.

Tsingtao Brewery was founded by the Anglo-German Brewery Co. Ltd., an English-German joint stock company based in Hong Kong which owned it until 1916. The brewery sold beers to mainly Europeans in China. The brewery was founded on August 15, 1903 as the Germania-Brauerei with a paid-in capital of 400,000 Mexican silver dollars divided into 4,000 shares priced at $100 each.

Founding members of the Supervisory BoardJohn Prentice, of SC Farnham, Boyd & Co., Ltd., Shanghai

Martin Wehle The first beer was served on December 22, 1904.Following the Siege of Tsingtao during World War I, Tsingtao came under Japanese military control. On August 16, 1916 an extraordinary general meeting was held in Shanghai. Liquidators were appointed and it was decided the company would be sold to the Dai-Nippon Brewery . The Japanese military administration in Tsingtao approved the liquidation on September 9, 1916. German equity was approximately 70 percent. The German share of the sales price attributable to shareholders was in the hands of the liquidators by April 2, 1921.

After Japan's surrender to the Allies and its retreat from China at the end of World War II, the Tsingtao Brewery was turned into a Chinese brewery under ownership of the Tsui family and supervision of the Nationalist government in Nanjing. However, this period of ownership only lasted until 1949 when, after a civil war, the People's Republic of China was founded. Shortly after, due to Communist policies, all private shares of the Tsingtao Brewery that had previously belonged to the Tsui family were confiscated and the company became a state-owned enterprise.

The company was privatized in the early 1990s and in 1993 merged with three other breweries in Qingdao and was finally renamed Tsingtao Brewery Company Limited. At one point 27% of the company was owned by Anheuser-Busch. The company once owned several other breweries in China, some of which also produced Tsingtao Beer.

On January 23, 2009, Anheuser-Busch InBev announced that it was selling 19.9% to Asahi Breweries for $667 million. The sale will make Asahi Breweries, Ltd. the second largest shareholder in Tsingtao behind only the Tsingtao Brewery Group. On May 9, 2009 Anheuser-Busch InBev sold its remaining 7% to Chinese tycoon Chen Fashu for $235 million.In January 2017, Asahi Breweries announced that it would sell its 20 percent share in Tsingtao which it had owned since 2009; the value of this share of the company is estimated at US$1.1 billion.

Tsingtao Brewery has a goal to become an multinational company with a global brand exposure. We will continue to be innovative and brew the beer that customers love, and continue to brew the joy of life with our passion!