Asahi announces $1.5bn share offering

Asahi aims to raise up to $1.5 billion in a share offering to repay loans taken out to buy Carlton & United Breweries from AB InBev.

A filing said the brewer would sell up to 157.5 billion yen in shares in Japan and the United States. The offering comprises 20.9 million new shares, plus treasury shares and a secondary offering of stock.

Asahi previously secured a 1.19 trillion yen loan from Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. It closed the $11 billion purchase of Carlton & United Breweries, AB InBev’s Australian business, in June.

The firm is keen to expand abroad as the domestic market dwindles.

Asahi previously purchased brands including Peroni, Pilsner-Urquell and Meantime following the merger of AB InBev and SAB Miller, and then snapped up the Fuller’s brewing business in the UK.