Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world's largest beer maker, announced Friday it has agreed to sell to Asahi Breweries Ltd. the majority of its stake in Chinese brewer TsingTao Brewery Co. for $667 million to help reduce its debt.
Asahi will acquire 19.9 percent of Tsingtao, reducing Anheuser's stake to 7 percent, the Belgium-based company said in a statement.
Anheuser aims to sell noncore assets to help repay $45 billion of debt taken on in last year's Anheuser-Busch takeover. The Belgian brewer has also issued bonds to help repay a $7 billion bridge loan due in November. Asahi is expanding outside Japan as beer sales drop at home and agreed in December to buy Cadbury PLC's Australian beverages unit.
"This is a substantially higher price than I had anticipated and a very good result" for Anheuser, said Andrew Holland, an analyst at Dresdner Kleinwort in London. "The Japanese market is in long-term decline and Asahi are finally realizing they need to look outside the country." Holland has a "hold" recommendation on Anheuser shares.
The Belgian brewer "remains strongly committed to China, the largest beer market in the world," Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said in the statement. It also owns the Harbin and Sedrin beer brands in the Chinese market.