Craft Brew Alliance has announced plans to sell its Kona Brewing operations in Hawaii to help expedite the regulatory review of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s agreed deal to buy out the remaining shares of CBA that it doesn’t already own. AB, which owns 31% of CBA originally passed on an option to buy the remaining shares last year before finally making a deal in November.
Concerned that regulators may slow or even pause the AB/Kona deal from going through because of the nearly 50% market share of AB brands and Kona in the state of Hawaii, Kona will be sold to PV Brewing which is a part of VantEdge Partners.
PV Brewing will take over only the Island operations and facilities of Kona including its brewpubs in Kona and Honolulu, as well as its under-construction 100,000-barrel brewery. All Mainland sales and production of Kona will remain under AB.
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