The third-largest Chinese brewer, Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co., is planning to spend around CNY200m ($24m) on acquisitions of several smaller breweries next year, the company reported.

Over the past two years Yanjing bought 14 other breweries for about CNY1.1 billion ($132million). However, Yanjing, which is the dominant beer force in the Chinese capital, said it is not looking for a tie-up with a foreign partner.

23 December, 2002