The beer brands Peroni and Grolsch are to be put up for sale under plans by brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev to appease regulators in its £71bn takeover of SABMiller.
Budweiser owner AB InBev is considering selling the leading SABMiller brands as a pre-emptive move to satisfy EU competition regulators. The Peroni and Grolsch brands were expected to raise billions of pounds, according to the Sunday Times, which first reported the planned sale.
The mega-deal to combine the two largest players in the industry, agreed earlier this month, will be the eighth-largest takeover of all time and means that one company will supply nearly a third of the world’s beer from next year.
The deal is expected to be completed in the second half of 2016, pending clearance from regulators and shareholders. The takeover will allow Belgium’s AB InBev, which also makes Stella Artois, to tap into SABMiller’s strength in fast-growing African and Asian markets. But it must first satisfy competition watchdogs that it will not be overly dominant in the global drinks markets.
The expected sale of Grolsch and Italian lager brand Peroni follows news that SABMiller will sell its 58% stake in MillerCoors to Molson Coors for £8bn, to allay competition concerns in the US.
London-listed SABMiller could also be forced to offload its market-leading Snow brand in China, where the country’s drinkers account for a quarter of global beer consumption.
Both SABMiller and AB InBev declined to comment on the Peroni and Grolsch reports.
