Tsingtao Beer, China's second largest brewer, said yesterday it would buy Jinan Beer, a beer producer from Shandong province, for 250 million yuan. Analysts said the move was a way to fend off archrival Snow in the fight for the nation's beer market.

Tsingtao said it had signed a contract with Shandong Commercial Group to buy its subsidiary, which has an annual beer output of 300,000 kiloliters and 1.08 billion yuan in total assets.

Jinan Beer has a 30 to 40 percent market share in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong, and the deal, when finalized, would help push up the share that Tsingtao Beer has in Shandong to 80 percent, analysts said.