Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller‘s merger mega-deal put international private equity firms on alert on Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime Brewing Company beer brands as SAB Miller announced it will sell the three companies in order to anticipate potential requests from EU Antitrust Authority (download here the press release). Italy’s Peroni had been bought by SAB Miller back in 2003.
The sale of DAB MIller’s Italian, Dutch and British assets, together with the already decided sale of its US assets to Miller Coors for 12 billion dollars, is needed in order to win a EU go-ahead to the acquistion of SAB Miller by AB INBev, in a 108 billion dollars deal.
As far as Reuters writes, each of the three brands on sale might be valued about one billion dollars and the most favourite budders are private equity firms ad the bid industrial groups such as Heineken or Carlsberg already own big market shares in each European country so they might incurr in the same Antitrust problems that AB-InBev and SAB Miller are facing now,
AB InBev had sold its Korean assets to Kkr and Affinity Equity Partners in 2009 and bought them back in 2014. Again in 2009 AB-InBev sold nine craft breweries in Central and East Europe to CVC Capital Partners as part of the Antitrust conditions to the merger between Anheuser Busch Cos and InBev in 2008. Starting from those assets, CVC built the StarBev hroup and then sold it in 2012 to Molson Coors for a 2.65 billion euros price tag. Last February Bruxelles-listed investment company Gimv bought United Dutch Breweries, owner of the Oranjeboom brand, which had been sold by AB to the Dutch investment company Egeria inl 2008, again following the merger between AB and InBev.
Mergermarket wrote a few days ago that SAB Miller gave advisory mandate to Lazard and Deutsche Bank for Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime’s sale.
