Busy Friday For Beer Investors

Beer investors woke up to a busy Friday morning as Boston Beer Company Inc SAM bought rival brewer Dogfish Head and Anheuser Busch Inbev NV BUD is reportedly looking to spin its Asian business.

Boston Beer Buys Dogfish

Boston Beer, best known for its Sam Adams beer, announced Thursday afternoon it will buy Dogfish Head Brewery for around $300 million. The combination of the two craft breweries will create a "powerful American-owned platform" that focuses on craft beer and beyond, the companies said in a press release.

The combined company will continue holding on to their craft brewery status and will boast a leading position in the high end of the U.S. market. Combining into one will better position the new company to compete against rival beer companies that are up to 100 times its size.

DogFish founder Sam Calagione will join Boston Beer's board of directors and Dogfish's workers will continue to be heavily involved in beer and "beyond-beer" projects to fuel future innovation.

"We believe we are creating the most dynamic and diverse American-owned platform for craft beer and beyond," Boston Beer founder Jim Koch said in the press release.

Reuters: AB InBev Looking To Raise $5 Billion

Budweiser's parent company InBev filed plans to divest part of its Asian business Budweiser Brewing Company APAC through an initial public offering in Hong Kong, Reuters said citing sources familiar with the matter. The move would raise at least $5 billion for InBev and could be part of the company's plans to reduce its $102.5 billion debt load.

The parent company will hold on to a majority stake as part of a potential future IPO, Reuters said.

For the time being it is not clear the timing, pricing and deal size. The company said these factors would depend on market conditions and the deal is expected to finalize over the summer months.

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