KKR Plans to Acquire 85% Stake in a Chinese Beverage Company, Speculated to Be Dayao | Exclusive from 36Kr

Author | Zhong Yixuan

Editors | Qiao Qian, Yang Xuan

36Kr has exclusively learned that KKR, a US private equity firm, plans to acquire an 85% stake in a Chinese beverage company, presumably Dayao Drinks. "The deal has been in negotiation for a year," a source close to the transaction told 36Kr.

In response to this news, Dayao told 36Kr that it had no comment.

36Kr has also learned that in 2024, Dayao's revenue was around several billion yuan.

Previously, there were reports that Dayao Drinks was preparing for an IPO in Hong Kong as early as the second half of 2025. From the current situation, unlike many consumer companies that rushed to go public when the market was good, Dayao's founding team has chosen a different path.

As an established PE firm that has grown through mergers and acquisitions, KKR is known as the "King of Wall Street Takeovers." The industry evaluates it as "steady in its moves and not one for empty promises." It is also one of the oldest and most experienced private equity investment institutions globally.

Dayao Drinks is a domestic beverage company that has witnessed rapid growth in recent years. In 2014, Dayao decided to enter through the catering channel, which the "Big Two" beverage giants had long overlooked, thus breaking into the Chinese beverage industry.

The catering channel has always been difficult to penetrate - it is highly fragmented, and distributors even have to approach each establishment individually. Additionally, the beverage cabinet space in a catering outlet is extremely limited. After accounting for the standard Coke, Sprite, beer, and local strong brands, there are very few spots left for new brands.

Under these circumstances, it was no easy feat for Dayao to capture the catering channel. In an interview with 36Kr in 2023, Dayao mentioned that over 70% of its current sales come from the catering channel.

According to official website information, Dayao has over a thousand national distributors and millions of retail terminals across 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government. An entrepreneur from a beverage brand once told 36Kr that as early as 2022, Dayao's full - channel sales in a certain northwestern city had exceeded those of Coca - Cola, successfully challenging Coke's dominant position in that area. "Moreover, Dayao's entry into the areas within the Fifth Ring Road in Beijing was also an important turning point, as it once shattered the seemingly unbreakable myth of Arctic Ocean in Beijing."

As for this deal, it also implies a sense of "dislocation." When market risk aversion is high, KKR is making a contrarian bottom - fishing move. In the first quarter of 2025, KKR raised $30.54 billion in new capital, and its total assets under management further increased to $664 billion, a 15% year - on - year increase. KKR Co - CEO Scott Nuttall said at the earnings conference, "Since its establishment in 1976, KKR has experienced many cycles and disruptions. Based on our experience, it is precisely during such periods that some very attractive investment opportunities arise."

A KKR investor once shared how they "invest in China," with the core being to invest in line with China's "industrial development stage." Historically, KKR has invested in COFCO Meat in the agricultural and food sector, NVC Lighting and Haier, which benefited from the urbanization process, and ByteDance during the mobile Internet wave.

"After the pandemic, US dollar funds have hardly carried out large - scale mergers and acquisitions in China. This project may signal a shift in the wind and a change in the perception of China's consumer industry," a consumer investor told 36Kr.

In 2023, when talking about its goals, Dayao said it aimed to expand to the national market in five years. However, in China, there has not yet been a successful example of an established soda brand achieving national recognition. For Dayao, KKR's industrial resources and management capabilities may present an opportunity for it to move from the catering channel to the KA channel and from a regional brand to achieving its national - scale goal.