BRUSSELS, May 24 - EU antitrust regulators approved onTuesday Anheuser-Busch InBev's $100 billion-plustakeover of SABMiller on condition that it sell almostthe whole of SABMiller's beer business in Europe.
The Belgium-based maker of Budweiser, Corona and StellaArtois has already agreed to sell SABMiller's Peroni, Grolschand Meantime beer brands to Japan's Asahi Group Holdings Ltd and to divest eastern European assets.
The European Commission said that Europeans bought around125 billion euros of beer every year so even a relatively smallincrease would cause considerable harm to consumers.
"It was therefore very important that AB InBev's takeover ofSABMiller did not reduce competition on European beer markets,"EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said in astatement.
Reuters was the first to report that AB InBev's concessionswould secure the EU green light for one of the largest corporatetakeovers ever. (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)