Major Japanese brewery Kirin Holdings Co. said Monday its Sydney-based subsidiary Lion Pty Ltd. will sell a dairy and beverage business unit to China Mengniu Dairy Co.'s Australian subsidiary for AU$600 million ($408 million).

The move came as part of Kirin's efforts to streamline its businesses in Australia and focus on overseas beer markets. Lion said last Tuesday it will buy U.S. No. 3 craft beer maker New Belgium Brewing Co. by next March.

"The selling of the (Australian dairy) unit completes our restructuring plan" originally scheduled from 2016 to 2018 to cut low-profitability businesses, Kirin said.

Kirin said Lion is expected to finish sales procedures for the dairy unit by June following approval from Australian antitrust authorities.

The Japanese company said in April it would write down the value of Lion's dairy and beverage operations by 57.1 billion yen ($525 million) due to its sluggish business.

==Kyodo

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