Anheuser-Busch InBev said it had agreed to sell breweries including the Staropramen plant in the Czech Republic to CVC Capital Partners for up to $3.3bn (£2bn).
The sale, which comes weeks after the company sold Scotland’s best-selling lager Tennent’s, to C&C in a £180m deal, is part of a programme to reduce the huge debts that have been amassed by the group.
The group, which has its headquarters in Belgium, was created by InBev’s $52bn takeover of U.S. rival Anheuser-Busch completed last November. The company recently sold South Korea’s Oriental Brewery to KKR and the Busch theme parks in the US to another private equity firm, Blackstone.
The brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck’s has now raised a potential $9.5bn from asset sales agreed since last year’s deal, compared with a target of $7bn.
Some sector watchers think this gives the firm scope to pursue its ambitions in Mexico, possibly by taking its stake in the Modelo beer company from 50% to 100%.
Markets like Mexico are increasingly seen as offering better opportunities for brewers than the more mature markets of Europe.
Yesterday the world’s number two brewer, SABMiller, said beer sales dipped slightly in the six months to September as the global slowdown hit demand, with declines in Europe offset by double-digit growth in China.
The London-based maker of Miller Lite and Grolsch said that half-year underlying sales volumes fell 1%, with a 12% rise in China cushioning dips in Europe and South Africa. However, SABMiller said volumes also fell in Latin America.
AB InBev said CVC would be acquiring its operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia. Analysts said the business was put up for sale as AB InBev did not have key positions in any large beer markets. Competition in some of these markets from SABMiller and Heineken meant a bid from either brewer was unlikely for anti-trust reasons.
AB InBev is the leading brewer by volume in Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro, number two in the Czech Republic to SABMiller, number two in Bulgaria to Heineken and number three in Hungary and Romania behind Heineken and SABMiller.
AB InBev and CVC said the price tag could rise to $3.03bn depending on CVC’s return, while AB InBev has the right of first offer to reacquire the firm should CVC decide to sell in the future.
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