Anheuser-Busch InBev raises over euro6B in new shares

Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, said Thursday that investors had bought up all the euro6.4 billion ($8.27 billion) in new shares it sold to pay for the takeover that formed it last month.

The share sale will help pay off a $9.8 billion short-term loan that funded InBev's $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch, a deal that was completed last month.

The company also borrowed another $45 billion from a group of banks and plans to sell off some assets to finance the deal.

InBev had initially postponed the share issue scheduled for October when volatile stock markets swooped and soared in the grip of the financial crisis. It was finally launched on Nov. 24.

The company said Thursday that 99.58 percent of the 986 million new shares it put on the block last month had been bought at euro6.45 a share - less than half the euro14 trading price of InBev shares on the Brussels stock exchange.

The remaining shares were sold to institutional investors on Thursday for euro14.68 each.

The new shares will start trading on Dec. 16.

InBev had previously said that two main groups of major shareholders were poised to buy most new shares.

Some 60 percent of Inbev is held by several Brazilian financiers - including the investment banker Jorge Paulo Lemann - and a group of Belgian aristocratic families who founded the business.