TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese beverage maker Suntory Holdings <SUNTH.UL> said a public offering of its shares is one option to raise money to finance acquisitions after the privately held firm ended merger talks with bigger rival Kirin Holdings <2503.T>.

“If we need to raise funds in the future, we will consider raising money from the market,” Suntory President Nobutada Saji told reporters after a briefing on its earnings.

Suntory also said it was ready to spend 400-500 billion yen ($4.5-$5.6 billion) on acquisitions over the next five years.

Suntory, about 90 percent owned by Saji and other members of the company’s founding family, on Monday scrapped plans to merge with Kirin, citing difference over the merger ratio.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese brewers Kirin Holdings <2503.T> and Suntory <SUNTH.UL> dropped plans to create a combined food and drinks group with $43 billion in annual sales after disagreeing over levels of control in a merged firm.

The two brewers began talks eight months ago with the aim of building the scale needed to keep pace with global consolidation sweeping across the industry and grow outside the Japanese market, which is shrinking along with the population.

The deal was complicated by the two companies’ different corporate cultures. While Kirin is listed and based in Tokyo, unlisted Suntory calls the western city of Osaka its home and is 90 percent owned by its founding family.

The collapse of the merger talks, which would have created a group on a par with Pepsico Inc <PEP.N> and Kraft Foods Inc <KFT.N> in revenue, pushed Kirin’s stock down 7.4 percent on Monday. The stock hit its lowest in five months and more than 18 million Kirin shares traded, their most active day in 23 years.

TOKYO, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Japanese brewers Kirin Holdings <2503.T> and Suntory [SUNTH.UL] dropped plans to create a combined food and drinks group with $43 billion in annual sales after disagreeing over levels of control in a merged firm.

The two brewers began talks eight months ago with the aim of building the scale needed to keep pace with global consolidation sweeping across the industry and grow outside the Japanese market, which is shrinking along with the population.

The deal was complicated by the two companies’ different corporate cultures. While Kirin is listed and based in Tokyo, unlisted Suntory calls the western city of Osaka its home and is 90 percent owned by its founding family.

The collapse of the merger talks, which would have created a group on a par with Pepsico Inc <PEP.N> and Kraft Foods Inc <KFT.N> in revenue, pushed Kirin’s stock down 7.4 percent on Monday. The stock hit its lowest in five months and more than 18 million Kirin shares traded, their most active day in 23 years.

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese brewers Kirin Holdings and unlisted Suntory on Monday dropped plans to create a food and drinks group with $43 billion in annual sales, disagreeing over how to control a merged firm.

The collapse of the merger talks that began seven months ago pushed Kirin shares down 7 percent and is likely to hurt Japan’s highly competitive beverage firms’ chances of expanding overseas.

“The two sides could not agree on how the merged firm would be run,” Kirin President Kazuyasu Kato told reporters.

Separately, Suntory said there were “differences in opinions” between the two companies “including the merger ratio.”

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologized Friday for safety problems.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologized Friday for safety problems.

TOYOTA CITY, Japan, Feb 7 (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T>, which has recalled more than 8 million vehicles around the world for problems with unintended acceleration, has decided to recall its new Prius hybrid in Japan to fix a braking software glitch, a dealer said on Sunday.

Safety regulators in both the United States and Japan, the Prius’s biggest markets, are investigating braking problems with the model, Japan’s top-selling car last year and an icon of green design that has lifted the public image of Toyota.

Toyota said last week it planned to make a final decision on whether to issue a recall or voluntary repair as soon as possible. The dealer, who declined to be identified, said the recall could come in the next few days.

Toyota’s president apologised on Friday for safety problems.

TOKYO, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Japanese telecoms firm KDDI <9433.T> said regulators had questioned it about its plans to buy a stake in Japanese cable TV network J:Com from U.S.-based cable operator Liberty Global <LBTYA.O> for about $4 billion.

Some legal experts have already raised doubts about the legality of the deal, which was announced last week, saying KDDI may need to make a public tender offer for Liberty’s 37.8 percent stake in Jupiter Telecommunications Co (J:Com) <4817.Q>.

Japanese law stipulates that there must be a public offering open to all shareholders when a buyer seeks to purchase more than a one-third stake in another company.

KDDI and its lawyers have maintained that because it plans to buy three unlisted Liberty units, which together hold 37.8 percent in J:Com, it does not need to make a public tender offer.

TOKYO, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Japanese online mall operator Rakuten <4755.Q> said on Wednesday it has agreed to set up a joint venture with China’s top search engine Baidu <BIDU.O> to launch a virtual shopping mall targeting the world’s largest online population.

Rakuten, which has been trying to expand its operations overseas, said the joint venture would aim for the No. 1 spot among China’s online shopping malls.

Baidu already has its own e-commerce platform called Youa, which competes with China’s largest online retailer Taobao.

Rakuten said it would take a 51 percent stake in the venture, with Baidu to hold the rest. Total investment in the venture would be about 4.3 billion yen ($48.2 million) over three years, it said in a statement.

TOKYO, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Japan’s Tokyo Electron <8035.T>, the world’s No.2 chip equipment maker, said on Wednesday it is likely to report far smaller full-year losses than previously expected, thanks to a recovery in the semiconductor market.

Chip companies are emerging from a prolonged slump, with makers of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips set for a full-blown revival this year, as the improving global economy lifts corporate demand for computers.

That has encouraged them to boost capital spending to fend off rivals, a boon for Tokyo Electron which has received new orders from South Korea’s Samsung Electronics <005930.KS> and Taiwan’s TSMC <2330.TW> and UMC <2303.TW>.

The company said it now expects to post an operating loss of 14 billion yen ($156.9 million) for the year to March 31, against its previous forecast for a loss of 35 billion yen.