Japanese brewer Kirin got its first toehold in transtasman brewer Lion Nathan through the decision of Douglas Myers to sell his substantial shareholding in 1998.
Kirin on Monday offered $A12.22 ($NZ15.62) a share for all of the shares in Lion Nathan it does not own - an offer likely to be accepted.
Speight's Brewery, in Dunedin, is likely to move to Japanese ownership within three months.
Mr Myers had been looking for a suitable buyer for his stake in the company since late 1996, and it was taking a long time to find one.
Writing in The Myers, authors Paul Goldsmith and Michael Bassett wrote that the decision by Mr Myers to exit the company that had been the object of a large part of his life's work, and which had incorporated the fruits of his father's, grandfather's and great-great-uncle's labour, was a difficult one.
"In the end, he was matter of fact about it. At his age [58], it made no sense to have most of his wealth tied up in one company."
There was no possibility that Mr Myers could pass on the mantle to his son, Campbell. He was only a teenager, and they were no longer dealing with a family company.
The team appointed by Mr Myers searched for 18 months and spent nearly $1 million of his personal funds negotiating with several interested companies.
No-one wanted to buy the whole company, primarily because of the perception that it operated in small, declining markets and was already efficient, giving little scope for quick capital gains.
Eventually, Kirin agreed to pay $473 million for 87 million of Mr Myers' shares at $5.40 a share. This represented 15% of Lion.
After a lot of encouragement, Kirin agreed to stand in the market for another 30% of the company, to bring its shareholding to 45%.
Since Lion had been trading around $4.60 the week before, there was great enthusiasm among the remaining shareholders to join the deal.
Kirin extended the $5.40 per share offer on a "first come, first served" basis. The offer opened at 12pm on Tuesday, April 28, 1998, and was oversubscribed in seconds.
Those who missed out were highly critical when it emerged that Mr Myers' fellow directors - Christopher Mace, Geoff Ricketts (current chairman), Robin Congreve and Mike Smith had sold most of their shares.
The disquiet over the Kirin deal is regarded as the final straw that led to the imposition of a formal takeover code in New Zealand from 2001. It stipulated that all shareholders were to be treated equally in partial and full takeover offers.
