MIES, Switzerland/BEIJING, China - FIBA, the International Basketball Federation, on Wednesday announced that Beijing Enterprises Group Company Limited has signed up to be a FIBA Partner for the four-year period from 2016 to 2019.

This is the first international partnership deal put in place under FIBA's new competition system, which comes into effect in 2017 and culminates in the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup to be held in China with a record 32 national teams.

The agreement will see Beijing Enterprises Group granted exclusivity in the categories of beer and wine. Its beer brand, Yanjing Beer - the State beer of China and an official sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympics - will be promoted heavily across all senior men's and women's FIBA events.

This partnership includes the following leading properties of basketball's world governing body:
- 2016 FIBA Qualifying Tournaments for Men and Women to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games
- 2017 FIBA Continental Cups
- 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup
- 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup

The agreement grants them key commercial rights such as association with FIBA marks, brand visibility on the court and product placement at the venues. The brand will have great prominence as of 2016, starting with the four FIBA Qualifying Tournaments for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

FIBA Secretary General and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Member Patrick Baumann said: "It is a great sign of confidence to already sign our first partnership for the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup in China. This shows that the strong support for the next edition of FIBA's flagship event goes beyond the political and sports landscape, extending into the large and growing business community. We look forward to expanding this group of marketing partners in the near future."

General Manager of Beijing Enterprises Group Hou Zibo said: "We are a long-time and strong supporter of sports in our country and basketball is China’s number one sport in terms of participation. The FIBA Basketball World Cup will set new standards and we are very excited and proud to sign up as the first partner of this exciting venture."

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About FIBA
FIBA (fiba.com) - the world governing body for basketball - is an independent association formed by 215 National Basketball Federations throughout the world. It is recognised as the sole competent authority in basketball by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

For further information about FIBA, visit fiba.com or follow FIBA on facebook.com/fiba, twitter.com/fiba, instagram.com/fiba and youtube.com/fiba.

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About Beijing Enterprises Group Company Limited
Beijing Enterprises Group Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as “BG”) was set up with the funding of Beijing Municipal Government in January 2005. This is a large-scale municipal state-owned enterprise group established through the way of union and reorganization by the former Beijing Holdings Limited, Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited and Beijing Gas Group Co., Ltd. , which united and reorganized with Beijing Instrument Industry Group Co., Ltd. to become more powerful in July 2011; and it is a state-owned holding group with market and industrial operation and capital operation both at home and abroad. Its subordinate companies include five listed companies in Hong Kong, i.e. Beijing Enterprises Holdings Limited, Beijing Enterprises Water Group Limited, Beijing Development (Hong Kong) Limited, Beijing Properties (Holdings) Limited and China Gas Holdings Limited, and two A-share-listed companies, i.e. Beijing Yanjing Brewery Co., Ltd and Huiquan Beer. Up to the end of 2013, BG altogether owned more than 300 enterprises at various levels with total assets of more than 150 billion yuan.

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