Australia: Corona, Stella Artois in sights of ACCC

The licensing deal for Australia’s No.1 selling imported beer, Corona, will come under close scrutiny by the Australian competition regulator in the wake of an in-principle agreement for a $146 billion global mega-merger between Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller.

Lion, owned by Japan’s Kirin Corporation, has held the licence to sell Corona in Australia since 2012 when it took over the rights to the brand, which has 5.9 per cent by volume of the total beer market in Australia in its own right.

SABMiller bought out Foster’s in a $12.3 billion takeover and this triggered a change of control clause for Corona’s then Mexican owner, Grupo Modelo, allowing for the licensing switch to Lion in early 2012 – even though Foster’s had spent 22 years building the Corona brand in Australia.

But the Mexican brewer has since been swallowed by Anheuser-Busch InBev. If the merger of Anheuser-Busch InBev and SAB Miller succeeds, then the Australian arm of the merged entity could conceivably want to regain control of the Corona licence in Australia.

Full content: LidTime.com

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