AB InBev aims to raise $5bn in Hong Kong Asian listing

ANHEUSER-Busch InBev is aiming to raise about $5 billion (R73.4bn) in a Hong Kong listing of its Asian unit by the end of the month, people familiar with the matter said, reviving a plan scrapped two months ago for what would have been the world’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) of 2019.

The Belgian brewer is gauging investor demand and will launch the deal as soon as next week, said the people, who asked not to be identified.

Yesterday, the company said the resumed listing application involves its minority stake in Budweiser Brewing Company Apac, without its Australian operations, which it agreed to sell to Asahi Group Holdings for $11.3 billion shortly after shelving the IPO in July.

The decision to proceed with the share sale would depend on “a number of factors and prevailing market conditions,” AB InBev said. A representative for the firm declined to make further comment.

The listing could be a boost to the Hong Kong bourse at a time when the market has been roiled by the US-China trade war and ongoing anti-government protests that have occasionally flared into violence.

At $5bn, AB InBev Asia’s share sale would be the world’s second largest this year, trailing Uber Technologies’ $8.1bn US IPO in May, according to data.

The Hong Kong dollar strengthened to the highest in a month as traders speculated that such a large share sale would lock up funds and tighten liquidity in the city. The currency gained as much as 0.18 percent to 7.8247 for the greenback, before trading at 7.8296 as of 3.29pm local time. Shares of AB InBev jumped as much as 4 percent in early trading in Brussels, their biggest advance in seven weeks.

The quick return to a possible IPO is the latest move in the beer giant’s whiplash plan to cut its $100bn-plus debt pile after its mega-acquisition of SABMiller in 2016.

Even as the initial IPO, which aimed to raise $9.8bn, failed to garner enough support from institutional funds to meet the company’s ambitious expectations, chief executive Carlos Brito was in separate talks to offload its Australian unit to the Japanese brewer Asahi.

The removal of AB InBev’s Australian unit, in hiving off a slow-growing part of its Asia-Pacific empire, potentially makes the latest IPO plan more attractive to investors. Without Australia, the Asian unit’s revenue in 2018 was $6.7bn, representing organic growth of 7.4 percent.