Second Huge Booze Acquisition in Southeast Asia in a Week

Second Huge Booze Acquisition in Southeast Asia in a Week (Reuters)

The world’s largest brewery, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA, announced it will be buying South Korea’s Oriental Brewery Co Ltd (OB) for $5.8 billion, including debt. This deal gives the “King of Beers” a second reign over OB, as InBev had held the company until it sold to KKR in 2009 for $1.8 billion.  The deal follows on the heels of another gigantic beverage buyout when Japan’s Suntory Holdings agreed to buy Beam for $13.6 billion last week. So what’s the rush to buy up booze in Southeast Asia? Well, it has a lot to do with the fact that the region holds a $258 billion market that is growing twice as fast as the rest of the world’s beverage consumption. Maybe it is time for you to belly up to the investment-beverage bar?