AB InBev has announced its decision to proceed with the initial public offering (IPO) of 1.26 billion shares of a minority stake of its Asia Pacific subsidiary, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC (Budweiser APAC), on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Shares of the unit will be priced at HKD 27 each and AB InBev expects gross proceeds of the offering to be HKD 39.2 billion (approximately $5 billion).
The announcement comes after the company ditched plans to list the Asia Pacific unit in July. That listing attempt sought to price shares at between HKD 40 and HKD 47 each and was cancelled due to “several factors, including the prevailing market conditions”, AB InBev said at the time.
The company has partially exercised an offer size adjustment option, issuing an additional 189.4 million shares to cover market demand. Following the listing, AB InBev will control between 87.22% and 88.86% of Budweiser APAC.
AB InBev, which makes beers such as Bud Light and Stella Artois, intends to apply all of the net proceeds from the offering to repay debt.
It is still trying to reduce the debt it amassed through its acquisition of SABMiller for more than $100 billion in 2016.
In July, the company secured a deal to offload its Carlton & United Breweries subsidiary to Asahi Group Holdings for $11.3 billion.
Shares of Budweiser APAC are expected to begin trading on 30 September and the IPO will be the second biggest globally of 2019, trailing the $8.1 billion flotation of Uber Technologies in May.
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