AB-InBev may not be done with disposals

Belgium – Rumour has it that AB-InBev is considering selling off business units in South Korea and Central America to cut its massive debt pile after it had to junk its Asia IPO.

According to both Barrons.com and Marketwatch.com, the private-equity firm KKR approached AB-InBev in May 2019 about buying some of the Asian assets. KKR previously bought AB-InBev’s Korean business and sold it back to AB-InBev in 2014 for USD 5.8 billion.

The business units under consideration for a sale – South Korea, Guatemala and Honduras – could be attractive to buyers because they have high market shares and generate cash. At the same time, they aren’t high-growth markets, so selling them wouldn’t hurt AB-InBev’s growth prospects.

We shall see.