Chairman Of New Huadu Acquires Stake In Tsingtao Beer

Anheuser-Busch InBev, Tsingtao Beer's second-largest single shareholder, has announced that it will sell 91,641,342 H shares in Tsingtao Beer for HKD19.83 per share to Chen Fashu, chairman of the Fujian-based New Huadu Industrial Group.

According to a representative from the public relations department of Anheuser-Busch InBev China the transaction, which has a total value of USD235 million, is expected to relieve loan pressure on Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Prior to this, Anheuser-Busch InBev had announced plans to sell Oriental Brewery, one of the largest beer breweries in South Korea, at a price of USD1.8 billion to a subsidiary of KKR, so as to ease its USD45 billion loan burden.

A few months before the global financial crisis in 2008, InBev acquired U.S. Budweiser for USD52 billion. At the same time, InBev took on the 26.91% stake in Tsingtao Beer previously owned by Budweiser. However, on the completion of its transaction with Chen, Anheuser-Busch InBev will no longer hold any shares in Tsingtao Beer. Before this transaction, the company had already announced plans to transfer its stocks in the Chinese beer company to the Japanese brewery Asahi representing a 19.9% share in Tsingtao.