Anheuser-Busch InBev cancelled plans to list its Asia business on the Hong Kong stock market. Had the brewing giant gone ahead with its Asian IPO, it could have surpassed Uber as the year’s biggest IPO.
Anheuser-Busch had previously planned to sell around 1.6 million shares of Budweiser Brewing APAC at between HK$40 and HK$47 each. The Hong Kong listing could have potentially brought in $8-10 billion for the company.
The company attributed the shelving of the IPO to “several factors, including the prevailing market conditions".
Anheuser-Busch has indicated that even without the flotation of a minority stake in its Asian division, it will lower its net debt to operating earnings ratio to below 4 by the end of 2020 - from 4.6 as of 2018-end.