A unit of China Resources Enterprise Ltd. plans to pay 2.5 billion yuan (US$320 million) for southwestern Chinese brewer Blue Sword, as the beverage-to-retail giant expands in the world's fourth-largest economy.

The 51 percent-owned subsidiary, CR Snow -- in which SABMiller Plc. , the world's No. 2 brewer, owns 49 percent -- intends to complete the acquisition of the Sichuan-based firm in 2007's first quarter, China Resources said in a statement on Thursday.