TAPA Molson Coors Brewing Company

Anheuser-Busch InBev NV accepted the around $2.9 billion offer from Asahi Group Holdings Ltd. for SABMiller PLC's European premium brands, an important step in the Belgian brewer's effort to get regulatory approval for its pending acquisition of its biggest rival.

AB InBev said on Tuesday that the deal with Japan's Asahi is conditional upon the completion of the roughly $108 billion acquisition of SABMiller.

The brands being bought include Peroni, Grolsch and British craft beer Meantime and related businesses in Italy, the Netherlands, the U.K. and internationally.

Asahi, which made its binding cash offer for the brands in February, is hoping to significantly widen its international footprint in taking advantage of AB InBev's need to sell European assets to secure European regulatory approval for the SABMiller acquisition. The AB Inbev-SABMiller merger would create the world's biggest beer group with about 30% of the global beer market.

In buying the SABMiller assets, Asahi is making its biggest overseas acquisition and the largest in Japan's beverage and liquor industry since Suntory Holdings Ltd. bought Beam Inc., owner of Jim Beam, for about $13.6 billion in 2014.

The agreement with Asahi is just latest in a number of disposals AB Inbev has negotiated as the planned merger with SABMiller triggers a bout of consolidation in the global beer sector.

Last month, AB Inbev agreed to sell SABMiller's Chinese beer business to China Resources Beer Holdings Co., as the Belgian brewer seeks Chinese regulatory approval.

In the U.S., AB InBev negotiated a sale of SABMiller's interest in MillerCoors LLC to Molson Coors Brewing Co.

Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S, the world's third and fourth largest brewers by volume, respectively, have mostly sat out of the recent consolidation game.

Write to Ian Walker at ian.walker@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2016 03:35 ET (07:35 GMT)

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