Kirin Holdings Co. and Suntory Holdings Ltd. said Feb. 8 that their tie-up negotiations failed because they could not agree on the merger ratio.

Kirin Holdings President Kazuyasu Kato speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on Feb. 8. KYODO PHOTO

"To survive global competition, our company thought the merger (with Suntory) would play a huge role on various fronts, so we made our best possible efforts," Kirin President Kazuyasu Kato said at a news conference in Tokyo.

Kato said Kirin thought tying up with Suntory, which is not listed, would result in a merged, and listed, holding company with transparent, independent management.

"But we could not agree with various things on this point," Kato said.

Separately, Suntory President Nobutada Saji said the talks, first revealed last July, were canceled due to differences over the merger ratio.

"From the beginning, we said it would be a 50-50 based merger," and the ratio of the stock given to the Suntory founding families would naturally follow that base, Saji told reporters gathered at Suntory's Tokyo office.

Suntory's founding families own about 90 percent of the firm, and the merger ratio was a key factor in concluding the merger talks.

Suntory management had insisted that the firm hold more than 33.3 percent of the holding company to be created, thus giving the firm the power to veto key management decisions.

"We said this merger would not happen if such a deal was not part of it," Saji said. "I think there might have been a difference between the two companies over whether (the Suntory founding families) would be a silent majority or shareholders who will have a say in management when emergencies come up."