AB InBev seen facing sale of Chinese stake

Hong Kong

IN creating the world's biggest beer company, Anheuser-Busch InBev NV may need to let go of the planet's best-selling beer: China's Snow.

That's among the probable outcomes Guotai Junan Securities Co anticipates in the wake of AB InBev's agreement to buy SABMiller for US$106 billion. Analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc, BNP Paribas SA and Daiwa Capital Markets have also pointed out the likelihood of such a scenario in recent notes to clients.

The idea is that the merger would give the Belgian company about 40 per cent of China's beer market - too much for regulators' …