Asahi Offers About $3.5 Billion for Peroni, Grolsch
10 February 2016 - 7:10PM
Dow Jones News
TOKYO—Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. has offered to buy two European
beer brands that SABMiller PLC and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV want to
sell to address regulatory concerns about their planned merger,
according to a person familiar with the matter. The offer could be
valued at more than ¥ 400 billion ($3.5 billion), the person
said.
The two companies have been seeking offers for Dutch brand
Grolsch and Italian brew Peroni, both of which are owned by
SABMiller. Anheuser-Busch InBev's planned $108 billion acquisition
of SABMiller would create a brewing behemoth with roughly 30% of
the world's beer market. The deal, announced in November, has drawn
scrutiny from antitrust regulators in Europe, the U.S. and other
markets.
Acquiring the European brands would give Asahi a bigger
footprint outside Japan, where a shrinking, aging population and
tough competition limit brewers' growth prospects. Asahi, the top
domestic brewer, bought Independent Liquor of New Zealand for about
$1 billion in 2011, but hasn't been an aggressive overseas
buyer.
Several other Asian brewers have been weighing bids for Grolsch
and Peroni, according to people familiar with the situation.
Write to Atsuko Fukase at atsuko.fukase@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 10, 2016 02:55 ET (07:55 GMT)
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