Molson Coors to acquire European brewer StarBev for $3.54 bn

Canadian - American beer giant, Molson Coors Brewing Company, yesterday agreed to buy Central and East European brewer StarBev LP for €2.65 billion ($3.54 billion), in order to strengthen its foothold in Europe's emerging markets.

The acquisition is the largest since SABMiller Plc, one of the world's largest brewers bought Australia's Foster's in December 2011 for $10.2-billion 9 (See: SABMiller's $10.2-bn acquisition of Foster's gets Australia's conditional approval).

Montreal and Denver-based Molson Coors has acquired StarBev from private-equity firm CVC Capital Partners.

In December 2009 CVC Capital had acquired Anheuser-Busch InBev´s Central and Eastern European operations and renamed it StarBev. CVC Capital 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 $800 million, though it is unclear how much of it would be apportioned towards the new sale.

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest brewer had sold the assets to pay down debt after the $52 billion merger between Anheuser-Busch and InBev in 2008.

Anheuser-Busch InBev has the first right of refusal, which it did not exercise since it wants to focus on emerging markets, particularly China and Russia, said analysts.