AB InBev prices revived Budweiser Asia listing at lower end of projections
Budweiser owner Anheuser-Busch InBev has priced the revived listing of its Asian business at the bottom of the marketed range, far less than it had hoped to raise when it first tried to list the unit in July.
AB InBev priced the revived initial public offering (IPO) on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise around $5bn (£4bn).
Read more: AB InBev revives Budweiser Asia listing
The drinks giant initially sought to raise $9.8bn from the listing of its Asia-Pacific unit in July, but shelved the plans citing “several factors, including the prevailing market conditions”.
AB InBev said the IPO of Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd was priced at HK$27 (£2.76) per share, at the bottom end of the indicative range of HK$27 to HK$30. The listing is set to take place on 30 September.
The world’s largest brewer said last week it had lined up Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC to invest $1bn in the listing as a cornerstone investor – something Ab InBev had lacked during the earlier floatation attempt.
Despite the lowered price, the listing is the second biggest globally this year, behind Uber’s $8.1bn floatation in the US in May.
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The new listing does not include Ab InBev’s Australian operations, which it agreed to sell to Japan’s Asahi Group in an $11bn deal after the planned July IPO was scrapped.
“The company has top-notch assets and without the slow-growing Australian operations the deal has become more attractive than last time,” a source with knowledge of the IPO told Reuters.