Japan’s Asahi Beverages’ $16bn Carlton & United Breweries acquisition gets FIRB approval

Japan now holds Australia’s two leading brewers with ‘all the regulatory conditions satisfied’, says Asahi.

Kampai! Famous Aussie brews are heading to Japan. Credit Image: © Marianna Day Massey/ZUMA Press

The Foreign Investment Review Board has approved Japan’s Asahi Beverages’ $16bn acquisition of Australia’s biggest brewer, Carlton & United Breweries, with the nation’s owner of some of the most popular brands in the country to change hands again.

Asahi said on Thursday afternoon that it welcomed the Foreign Investment Review Board’s approval of Asahi’s acquisition of CUB.

“This approval represents the conclusion of the regulatory review process and all of the regulatory conditions to closing the transaction have now been satisfied,’’ Asahi said in a statement.

Chairman Asahi Beverages, Peter Margin, said: “Both parties will move to complete this acquisition on 1 June, with CUB joining the Asahi Beverages family on that day.

“CUB will become a business division of the Asahi Beverages Regional Hub within Oceania, along with Asahi Lifestyle Beverages, Asahi Premium Beverages and Asahi Beverages New Zealand.”

The FIRB approval will mean that Australia’s two leading brewers, CUB and Lion, are now both owned by Japanese conglomerates with Kirin owning Lion.

The nation’s brewing industry was lined up for its biggest shake-up in decades after Japan’s. Asahi clinched a deal with Anheuser-Busch InBev to buy CUB for $16 billion last year, in one of the biggest takeovers in Australian corporate history.

Meanwhile, Asahi will emerge as the third-largest global brewer with more than two-thirds of its earnings coming from outside Japan.

The inbound investment by Asahi is the largest since Unibail-Rodamco, Europe’s largest commercial landlord, agreed to acquire shopping centre owner Westfield for $21bn in 2017, and is the latest in a spate of Japanese Inc shopping trips in Australia.

CUB, with its base in Melbourne and a history stretching back to 1903, was owned by Foster’s up until 2011, when it was sold to SABMiller for $11bn.

Later, it was folded into a $US100bn mega-merger with Anheuser-Busch InBev to create the biggest brewer in the world.

Although CUB’s earnings have flatlined for a number of years as drinkers switch to other beverages such as wine, spirits or ciders, or consume less beer in keeping with growing health trends, it is still a highly valuable business with almost 50 per cent of the national beer market.