FDBusiness.com

China’s Ministry of Commerce has given conditional approval for the proposed acquisition of SABMiller by AB InBev. To achieve the Ministry of Commerce’s conditional approval and consistent with AB InBev’s approach to proactively addressing potential regulatory concerns, AB InBev agreed to sell SABMiller’s 49% stake in China Resources Snow Breweries to China Resources Beer (Holdings), which currently owns 51% of CR Snow.

This divestment, which was previously announced between AB InBev and China Resources Beer (Holdings), is conditional on the successful closing of the combination of AB InBev with SABMiller.

Following previously announced clearances in the EU, South Africa and the United States, all of the pre-conditions to the proposed combination have now been satisfied.

AB InBev has now obtained approval in 23 jurisdictions. Clearance decisions, with or without conditions, have now been obtained: in North America (US and Canada); Asia-Pacific (Australia, India, South Korea and China); in Africa (Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa); in Europe (the EU, Albania, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine); and in Latin America (Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico and Uruguay).

In the remaining jurisdictions where regulatory clearance is still pending, AB InBev will continue to engage proactively with the relevant authorities to address their concerns in order to obtain the necessary clearances as quickly as possible.