Japan’s Asahi is front runner for East European brewer StarBev: report
02 Mar 2012
Japan's biggest beer maker by sales, Asahi Group Holdings Ltd, is emerging as a front runner to buy East European brewer StarBev, in a sale that is expected to fetch around $3 billion for private equity owner CVC Capital Partners, Reuters yesterday reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
CVC Capital Partners, the owner of StarBev, is seeking to sell the business in around two weeks after receiving approaches from global brewing groups, the report said.
The private equity firm had in December 2009 acquired Anheuser-Busch InBev´s Central and Eastern European operations, renaming them StarBev.
CVC Capital Partners struck a complex $2.23-billion sale deal with Anheuser StarBev by paying $1.62 billion in cash and $448 million in deferred payment.
The deal also included a contingent payment of as much as $800 million, and it is unclear as to how much of it would be included in the new sale.
Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, StarBev has operations in Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Slovakia.