As part of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s huge buyout of SABMiller which was finalized in late October, the company have put several brands of their beer up for sale and at least seven separate industry heavyweights and private funds are expected to table bids before the end of November.
Likely interested parties include Polish firms Lech and Tyskie, Czech Republic’s Pilsner and, according to inside sources, some Asian companies.
The beer brands are thought to be worth upwards of $5 billion and sources revealed Japanese brewer Asahi Holdings have teamed up with Czech investment firm PPF Group to muster a substantial bid.
Polish juice maker MaspexWadowice Group and an unnamed Hungarian energy conglomerate have also combined to put in an offer.
“Early rumours are fairly complex with news that there are a multitude of offers from individual companies and consortiums,” said James Coleman, Managing Director and co-head of Portfolio Trading at Softbank CIBC International. “We’ve seen rapid consolidation in the sector already this year as companies feel the pinch amid increased competition from small breweries and the rise in popularity of local craft beer.”
Sources also mentioned other consortiums involving private equity firms were interested in putting forward offers before the end of the year, as second and third round bids will be taken.
One entity that has dropped out of the running is BC Partners, a European private equity firm who last week announced that they were in preliminary talks with Anheuser-Busch but failed to reach common ground.
Several stake holders in SABMiller are also interested in selling their shares and taking a closer look at AB InBev brands, including Polish billionaire Sebastian Kulczyk and China Resources who run SABMiller’s China arm.
AB InBev produces famous beer brands such as Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois and has several separate listings on global stock exchanges.
A spokesperson for the company said, “We can confirm that we are looking at several offers at the moment but that there are due to be many bidding rounds for our branded beers. We are looking forward to sitting down to serious talks with those interested parties in the next few months and hopefully we can make an announcement to our shareholders before the second quarter of 2017.”
