THE consolidation of the brewing industry gathered pace yesterday as SABMiller announced a $7.8 billion (£4.5 billion) takeover of Grupo Empresarial Bavaria, of Colombia.

The deal puts SAB narrowly behind InBev, the owner of Stella Artois, by volume in the global league table and a more distant second to Anheuser-Busch, which owns Budweiser, in terms of earnings.

It follows a clutch of deals. Last year, Interbrew, of Belgium, merged with AmBev, of Brazil, to form InBev, while Adolph Coors, of the United States, has just merged with Molson, of Canada. SAB, itself created from the $5.6 billion takeover of Miller Brewing by South African Breweries, said yesterday that it would continue to seek acquisitions.

Stuart Price, an analyst at Panmure Gordon, said that he would have preferred it to buy Femsa, the Mexican brewer, or merge with Carlsberg, its Danish rival. He also mooted a strategic alliance with Guinness, owned by Diageo. Also tipped as a potential bid target is Scottish & Newcastle, Britain’s biggest brewer.

Analysts believe that Heineken’s failure to snare Bavaria leaves the Dutch company in a strategic hole. Some suggest that it may attract bid interest from Anheuser-Busch.

Under the terms of yesterday’s deal, SABMiller is buying the 71.8 per cent of Bavaria from the founding Santo Domingo family for $3.5 billion. The family will swap the holding for a 15.1 stake in the enlarged SABMiller.

SABMiller will also assume about $1.9 billion of debt and will seek to buy out minority shareholders. The balance of $2.4 billion will be funded from debt.

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