BRUSSELS (AP) — Anheuser-Busch InBev said Monday that private equity group KPS Capital Partners would buy a unit importing Canada's Labatt beer into the United States.
It did not say how much New York-based KPS was paying for the business, which will have an exclusive license to sell — and eventually brew — Labatt for the U.S. market. AB-InBev will hold on to Labatt of Canada which has promised to supply the U.S. unit for up to three years.
The world's largest brewer had to sell the unit to win antitrust approval for InBev's $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch.
The U.S. Department of Justice was worried that the takeover would make the company too powerful in upstate New York and could allow it increase beer prices. As suppliers of both Budweiser and Labatt Blue, AB-InBev would sell most of the beer in the region.