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The world's largest brewer, Anheuser-Busch InBev, which shelved a Hong Kong IPO of its Asia Pacific unit in July, is planning to raise about $5 billion (€4.5 billion) from a revived share flotation, people with knowledge of the matter said.
AB InBev, which had aimed to raise as much as $9.8 billion in the IPO of Budweiser Brewing Company APAC Ltd to help with its heavy debt burden of over $100 billion, aims to relaunch the float as soon as next week, the sources said.
It is tentatively looking to price the deal on September 23rd and list the unit on September 30th, said two sources who declined to be identified as the information was private.
AB InBev said it was continuing to explore an IPO in Hong Kong of Budweiser APAC, two months after shelving the planned listing of up to $9.8 billion in what would have been the largest IPO of 2019.
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Budweiser APAC has resumed its application for the listing of a minority stake of its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, excluding its Australian operations, which the parent agreed to sell to Japan's Asahi Group for $11 billion shortly after the IPO was shelved in July.
Budweiser APAC declined to comment on the IPO details. AB InBev did not respond to a request for immediate comment.
Boost
The listing would be a boost for the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after a report last month that China's biggest ecommerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd had delayed a listing in Hong Kong worth up to $15 billion amid growing political unrest in the Asian financial hub.
The development also comes after Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd announced a $39 billion takeover approach to the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday that received a cool response from investors concerned about regulatory and financial hurdles. – Reuters
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