Asahi looks to exit Tsingtao after it fails to dent China's beer market

For a foreign brewer hoping to gain an edge in the Chinese market, it seemed like the ideal alliance: Japan’s largest beermaker teaming up with one of China’s premier brands. Yet, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.’s 2009 purchase of a minority stake in Tsingtao Brewery Co. didn’t produce the opportunities the Tokyo company hoped.