SeaWorld For Sale – Executives at newly merged beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev vowed earlier today to press forward with “at least $7 billion” in asset sales this year — which could include a sale of SeaWorld, the company’s Orlando-based theme-park division.
“We have been approached by different players” interested in bidding on various A-B InBev businesses, company Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito said on a conference call. “We’re progressing on several fronts.”
Brito declined to identify which business units the Belgian-based brewer has put on the auction block, other than to say it has identified a list of five to six assets that “tend to be non-core for us” and which could be spun off without significantly disrupting other company operations.
That list is widely thought to include Busch Entertainment Corp., the parent company of SeaWorld Orlando, Aquatica and Discovery Cove, along with other theme parks around the country.
Selling off non-core businesses is a crucial part of A-B InBev’s plan to pay down debt stemming from InBev’s $52 billion acquisition last year of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos.
The company has shed some assets already this year, including a stake in Tsingtao Brewery Co. and InBev USA, the American importer of Canada’s Labatt beer. Brito said asset sales so far have generated roughly $2 billion of the $7 billion or more the company wants to raise.
A-B InBev is reportedly seeking as much as $4 billion for Busch Entertainment, which includes SeaWorld.
The comments came as A-B InBev reported that fourth quarter profits fell 95 percent, in large part because of merger costs.
Any large sales will be complicated by the ongoing turbulence in world debt markets. But Brito said he is optimistic that his company will be able to pull off sales.
“We’re confident that, with the quality of the assets that we’re talking to some players [about], that we’ll have some news for this year,” he said.
And that’s the latest news on SeaWorld for sale.
Tags: a b inbev, busch entertainment, economy, sea world, seaworld, seaworld for sale
May 5th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
love
May 6th, 2009 at 10:27 am
love.