AB InBev Sells Stake in Distell to South African Pension Fund

16 Dec 2016 --- Anheuser-Busch InBev is to sell SABMiller’s stake in South Africa’s Distell Group to a South African pension fund, as it looks to meet competition requirements agreed during its $100bn purchase of SABMiller.

AB InBev is selling its 26.4 percent stake in Distell, which makes wines and ciders, to Public Investment Corp but did not disclose the price.

According to one report, the stake is worth around $645m, based on Distell’s closing price on Wednesday.

AB InBev shares nudged down one percent while Distell’s share were up over one percent on the news.

AB InBev released a short statement saying: “Anheuser-Busch InBev has entered into a binding agreement to sell its entire indirect shareholding in Distell Group Limited to the Public Investment Corporation.”

South Africa’s Competition Commission demanded the disposal a condition of AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller.

The disposal comes just days after AB InBev agreed to sell a number of Eastern European beer brands to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings for €7.3 billion ($7.8bn), in a further move to ease competition concerns over the SABMiller deal.

It is offloading brands in the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, Poland, Hungary and Romania including flagship Czech brand Pilsner Urquell, another Czech brand Kozel, and the Hungarian brand Dreier to the Japanese group.

In September, AB InBev’s takeover of SABMiller, which marks one of biggest takeovers in corporate history, was granted approval from shareholders from both companies.

By purchasing SABMiller, AB InBev now has an estimated 46 percent of global beer profits, a dominance that has led to some to question whether it is a good thing for the overall beer market.

However, as well as selling brands to Asahi and its stake in Distell Group, it has also sold off other businesses to satisfy competition regulators.

In the US, it sold SABMiller’s 58 percent interest in the joint venture MillerCoors LLC to Molson Coors Brewing Co while in China it agreed to sell SABMiller’s Chinese beer business to China Resources Beer Holdings Co.