Kirin to buy Australian health food firm Blackmores for $1.24 bil.

Kirin Holdings Co. said Thursday it will buy Australian health food company Blackmores Ltd. for AU$1.88 billion ($1.24 billion) to expand its health-related business in the fast-growing markets of the Asia and Oceania regions.

Blackmores will become a fully owned subsidiary of Kirin under a deal scheduled to be completed in August, said the Japanese beverage group.

Kirin has in recent years focused on the overseas potential of the health sciences, seeing limited growth in the domestic beverage market.

Kirin said that in part, it has decided to acquire Blackmores to tap into the Australian firm...