Bella Media (LSE:BLL)
Historical Stock Chart

From May 2019 to May 2024

Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI.BT) Wednesday said it will sell three beverage can manufacturing plants and a metal lid plant to Ball Corporation (BLL) for $577 million in cash.

Ball will continue supplying metal cans to AB InBev under a long-term supply contract as part of the deal, AB InBev said.

The plants - located in Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia and Florida - represent 40% of the capacity of the Metal Container Corporation, AB InBev's can-making subsidiary, which it acquired with its takeover of Anheuser-Busch last year.

The plants being sold are focused on making containers for soft drinks, not AB InBev's core business of beer. The brewer, based in Leuven, Belgium, said it has no plans to sell the Metal Container Corporation's remaining seven plants.

The deal is likely to close at the end of the year or the beginning of 2010, AB InBev said.

AB InBev is moving to sell $7 billion in assets to help pay down the $45 billion in debt in took on to buy Anheuser. It has already sold Oriental Brewery for $1.8 billion, and its stake in Tsingtao Brewery Co. for about $900 million.

Deutsche Bank AG (DB) and Lazard Freres & Co. (LAZ) advised AB InBev on the deal.

-By Matthew Dalton, Dow Jones Newswires; +32 2 741 1487; matthew.dalton@dowjones.com