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The biggest European private equity deal of the year was revealed today, as CVC Capital Partners announced that it will pay as much as $3.03 billion (£1.8 billion) for AB InBev's central European operations.
The deal will see CVC brew and sell Stella Artois, Beck's, Lowenbrau, Hoegaarden, Spaten and Leffe under licence in eight countries. They are Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.
The sell-off is part of AB Inbev's plans to reduce the $45 billion of debt it raised when it took over US brewer Anheuser Busch last year.
Today's deal means that it has already beaten its own target of raising $7 billion through disposals.
“This enables us to exceed our stated commitment to achieve $7 billion in divestitures, while better focusing our resources towards our core markets,” said chief executive Carlos Brito.
Last month AB InBev sold its US theme parks to another private equity firm, Blackstone, for $2.7 billion.
It also sold Tennents lager to C&C for £180 million.
The CVC side of the deal was led by István Szöke, head of its central and eastern Europe team. He said the business would be renamed StarBev.
Barclays Capital and Lazard advised AB InBev on the deal which first came to light during the summer.
