Beverages group C&C today announced it has completed the acquisition of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Irish, Scottish, and Northern Irish businesses.
The deal, worth some €200 million, was approved by the Irish Competition Authority on September 17th and was backed by shareholders on September 25th.
The acquisition, which includes Scotland's top lager, Tennent's, was announced last month and allows C&C to market its Magners cider in Northern Ireland and Scotland as well as giving it a strategic partnership with ABI, the world's largest beer maker.
"In the Tennent's brand we are buying an iconic product . . . as well as strengthening a route to market for our Magners brand," John Dunsmore, C&C's chief executive, told shareholders, adding that he would not rule out further acquisitions in the long term.
The deal includes the Tennent's Wellpark brewery in Glasgow, and will leave AB InBev with just three breweries in the United Kingdom, although one of those in London will close next year.
For the Belgium-based brewer it will help cut debt after InBev bought Budweiser-brewer Anheuser-Busch last November for $52 billion in the world's biggest cash takeover.