Polish billionaire may join team to bid for SABMiller’s east Europe brands

Sebastian Kulczyk, a Polish billionaire and his company, Kulczyk Investments are likely partners with a team of private equity funds, in a potential joint bid for SABMiller’s central and east European brands, Puls Biznesu daily, a Polish daily newspaper reported on Thursday.

The breweries located in the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia are to be sold by AB InBev, as part of agreement reached with European Union antitrust regulators for the takeover of SABMiller.

The brands include Czech market leader Pilsner Urquell, Dreher in Hungary, Tyskie and Lech in Poland, Ursus in Romania and Topvar in Slovakia.

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Puls Biznesu, said that Sebastian Kulczyk, who owns 1.5% of SABMiller’s shares could become a partner with other private equity funds that need to team up to match AB InBev’s price expectations.

Kulczyk Investments was not immediately available for comment.

Some of the private equity funds who have expressed interest in bidding for the brands include Advent International, KKR, BC Partners, CVC and Mid Europa Partners.

Other potential bidders for the brands valued between €5bn and €7bn include China Resources Enterprises, Japan’s Asahi Breweries, Kirin Breweries also of Japan and Czech’s R2G. The bidding process is expected to start after Oct. 10, Puls Biznesu said.

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