Japan & EU: Asahi closes acquisition of AB InBev/SABMiller’s Central and Eastern European breweries

Japanese Asahi has finished the acquisition of the former SABMiller Central and Eastern European operations, including the businesses from Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary and Romania, the Business Review reported on March 31.

The approval from the European Commission of the acquisition of AB InBev was conditioned by the sale of CCE operations. At the beginning of this month, the EC announced that it was giving the green light for this deal. The new company will operate under the name Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd and will report to the company Asahi Group Holdings Ltd from Tokyo. The regional headquarter will be in Prague, Czech Republic.

“The last 24 months represented a transformation period for our company. In October 2016, Asahi finished the acquisition of the SABMiller from Italy, Netherlands and UK, which included mainly the brands Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime, and now added to the portfolio the operations of SABMiller from Central Europe,” said Ryoichi Kitagawa, the representative of Asahi Group Holdings Ltd.

Paolo Lanzarotti, CEO Asahi Breweries Europe Ltd, also said: “We got through a long way until here and we are thrilled to continue with Asahi the development of this business. Both companies have excellent brands in the portfolio and extraordinary people.”

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