(Yicai) May 8 -- Tsingtao Brewery plans to buy a producer of traditional Chinese yellow wine for CNY665 million (USD92 million), saying the acquisition is intended to diversify the Chinese beer giant’s product offering.

The target company is Jimo Yellow Wine Factory, a huangjiu maker, the Qingdao-based brewer announced late yesterday. Since the seasonality of beer and yellow wine does not overlap, the acquisition will complement Tsingtao Brewery's main business, it added.

The move comes amid a slowdown in the Chinese beer market, where both production and consumption have fallen since peaking in 2013. Last year, Tsingtao Brewery sold 7.54 billion liters of beer, some 5.9 percent less than the year before.

Tsingtao Brewery [SHA: 600600] closed down 0.3 percent at CNY74.38 (USD10.28) a share in Shanghai today, while its Hong Kong-traded stock [HKG: 0168] slid 0.6 percent to end at HKD54.30 (USD6.99). Both markets gained.

Huangjiu is a unique type of brewed rice wine is characterized by its brown-yellow color, with an alcohol content ranging from 8 percent to 20 percent. It is commonly used as a cooking ingredient as well as a beverage and is considered to be one of the world’s three ancient alcoholic beverages, along with beer and wine.

Jimo Yellow Wine, also headquartered in Qingdao, has an annual production capacity of 20,000 tons. Last year, the company’s net profit jumped 38 percent to CNY30.5 million (USD4.2 million) on a 14 percent gain in revenue to CNY166.4 million (USD23 million).

By comparison, Tsingtao Brewery’s net profit rose just 1.8 percent to CNY4.35 billion (USD600 million), while revenue slid 5.3 percent to CNY32.14 billion (USD4.4 billion), with CNY31.6 billion coming from its beer business.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Tom Litting