The maker of top-selling beers Stella Artois, Beck’s and Budweiser has put its Central and Eastern European operations up for auction in an attempt to reduce its mountain of debt

Anheuser-Busch Inbev, the world’s largest brewer, was created after Inbev paid $52 billion (£32 billion) to buy Anheuser-Busch, resulting in a company with more than 200 brands worldwide.

It also took on a $7 billion bridging loan to part-finance the takeover, bringing the combined group’s total debt to $45 billion — just before the onset of the global credit crunch.

AB Inbev has recently begun to reduce its indebtedness by selling some of its assets.

It sold its Oriental brewery in South Korea, one of the country’s fastest-growing breweries, to the private equity group Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $1.8 billion last month.

The company has also sold a 20 per cent stake in China’s Tsingtao brewery to Japan’s Asahi for nearly $700 million, and raised a further $100 million from the sale of the American brewing and distribution business of the Canadian beer brand Labatt.

The Central and Eastern European operations include 11 breweries in countries including Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Serbia and Montenegro. Together they produce 329 million gallons of beer a year and employ 6,000 people The breweries are expected to fetch about $2 billion and will attract the interest of rival brewers including SAB Miller and Heineken, as well as private equity firms.

Although the high-growth Russian business is not being sold at this stage, analysts said its disposal, which could fetch a further $2 billion, was a possibility.

Other possible assets that could come on the market include AB Inbev’s American theme-park business, which includes Sea World, Busch Gardens and Aquatica.

High-level industry sources have suggested that the German business, which includes Beck’s, is also unofficially on the block, although sources close to the company deny this. The American Rolling Rock beer brand could also be put up for sale.

Overall, the disposals should enable the company to meet its short-term debt requirements. The $7 billion bridging loan, which must be repaid by November, has already been reduced by $3.5 billion through a $5 billion bond sale.

An additional $500 million has been released in working capital from the former Anheuser-Busch operation and capital spending will be reduced by $1 billion.

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