World’s largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has raised $5 billion in Hong Kong through an initial public offering of its Asia business unit. This is far less than what the brewer hopes to raise when it tried to list earlier two months ago.
AB Inbev had initially sought to raise closer to $10bn from listing on the Hong Kong stock exchange but shelved after investors were put off by the price with management citing “prevailing market conditions” as the reason behind it. The company priced 1.45 billion shares at HK$27($3.44), that values the Asia unit at around $45 billion.
The IPO had JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley as co-sponsors, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Chinese investment bank CICC are the global coordinators for the offering.
AB InBev sold off its Australia business unit to Japan’s Asahi Group Holdings for $11billion, which reduced the value of its AsiaPacific unit.
Proceeds from the successful IPO are expected to help the company pay down more than $100 billion in debt from its purchase of SAB Miller in 2016.
According to data from Refinitiv, the IPO is the second-biggest globally so far this year, trailing only the $ 8.1 billion flotation of Uber Technologies Inc in May.
The revival of the listing is a boon for Hong Kong’s stock market, where activity has dwindled this year due to the Us-china trade war and the political unrest rattling the territory.
Asia is an important growth market for AB InBev, whose market share has shrunk in the US, where it owns key brands including Bud Light and Budweiser. The company owns about 50 beer brands, among them Stella Artois, Becks and Corona.
Shares of AB Inbev traded at 86.74 Euros and has risen more than 46percent year to date.
