The international food and beverage giant Yum! Brands plans to acquire an additional 7.3% stake in the Chinese hot pot restaurant chain Little Sheep after taking a stake of over 20% in the company earlier this year.

Chinese dairy company Mengniu has published a report stating that COFCO and Hopu Investment Management will buy a 20.3% stake in Mengniu at the price of HKD17.6 per share, for a total of about HKD6.1 billion.

According to COFCO, the restructuring of its newly acquired instant noodle company Wugudaochang is basically completed and its Beijing plant is expected to resume production in August 2009.

According to reports in local Japanese media, the Japanese electronics retailer Laox is in discussions with the Chinese home appliances retailer Suning and plans to sell parts of its stake to the latter.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, Tsingtao Beer's second-largest single shareholder, has announced that it will sell 91,641,342 H shares in Tsingtao Beer for HKD19.83 per share to Chen Fashu, chairman of the Fujian-based New Huadu Industrial Group.

According to the Hong Kong-listed Chinese hotpot restaurant chain Little Sheep, the American restaurant group Yum plans to invest HKD493 million to acquire a 19.99% stake in Little Sheep.