Asahi to Pay $7.8 Billion for Five AB InBev Beer Brands
December 13 2016 - 3:40AM
Dow Jones News
TOKYO—Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. said Tuesday it agreed to
acquire beer brands in Eastern Europe from Anheuser-Busch InBev NV
for €7.3 billion ($7.8 billion).
The deal gives bigger international heft to Japan's Asahi, which
is one of the top beer makers in its home market but only a small
player globally. Asahi said it planned to acquire brands in the
Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania.
AB InBev is selling the assets as part of its pact with European
regulators to win approval for its acquisition of SABMiller. The
merger of the two beer giants was completed in October.
Asahi had joined private-equity firms and others in bidding for
the assets.
Asahi's shares closed 4.6% lower in Tokyo trading Tuesday after
the Nikkei newspaper reported on the likely deal an hour before the
market closed.
Asahi previously bought some European beer brands, including
Peroni and Grolsch, for €2.55 billion from SABMiller, in another
divestiture made to get regulatory clearance.
Japanese beer makers have been actively looking overseas for
growth because the domestic market is shrinking, owing to a
population that is both getting smaller and growing older. For now,
they rank far behind global giants including AB InBev. Asahi had a
1.2% global share of the beer market in 2015, according to
Euromonitor International.
Shipments in Japan of beer and related brews including low-malt
beer came to about 425 million cases in 2015, compared with a peak
of 573 million cases in 1994, according to the Brewers Association
of Japan. Asahi has fallen further this year with sales of its
flagship Super Dry down nearly 4% in the first 11 months of this
year.
Kirin Holdings Co. bought a 55% stake in Myanmar Brewery for
$560 million last year.
Write to Megumi Fujikawa at megumi.fujikawa@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 13, 2016 03:25 ET (08:25 GMT)
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