Asahi Offers About $3.5 Billion for Peroni, Grolsch

TOKYO—Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. has offered to buy two European beer brands that SABMiller PLC and Anheuser-Busch InBev NV want to sell to address regulatory concerns about their planned merger, according to a person familiar with the matter. The offer could be valued at more than ¥ 400 billion ($3.5 billion), the person said.

The two companies have been seeking offers for Dutch brand Grolsch and Italian brew Peroni, both of which are owned by SABMiller. Anheuser-Busch InBev's planned $108 billion acquisition of SABMiller would create a brewing behemoth with roughly 30% of the world's beer market. The deal, announced in November, has drawn scrutiny from antitrust regulators in Europe, the U.S. and other markets.

Acquiring the European brands would give Asahi a bigger footprint outside Japan, where a shrinking, aging population and tough competition limit brewers' growth prospects. Asahi, the top domestic brewer, bought Independent Liquor of New Zealand for about $1 billion in 2011, but hasn't been an aggressive overseas buyer.

Several other Asian brewers have been weighing bids for Grolsch and Peroni, according to people familiar with the situation.

Write to Atsuko Fukase at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 10, 2016 02:55 ET (07:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.