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By Foo Yun Chee
BRUSSELS, May 24 - The world's largest brewer Anheuser-BuschInBev gained EU antitrust approval on Tuesday for its$100 billion-plus acquisition of SABMiller on conditionit sell almost the whole of SABMiller's beer business in Europe.
Reuters was the first to report that AB InBev's concessionsto sell substantial assets would secure the EU green light forone of the largest corporate takeovers ever.
AB InBev has already agreed to sell SABMiller's Peroni,Grolsch and Meantime beer brands to Japan's Asahi Group HoldingsLtd and to divest eastern European assets, three peoplefamiliar with the matter said on Friday.
The takeover will give it a third of the global beer market,selling twice as much beer as its nearest rival Heineken.
The European Commission said Europeans bought around 125billion euros ($139 billion) worth of beer every year so even arelatively small increase would cause considerable harm toconsumers.
"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.
The deal still needs to be approved by authorities in theUnited States and China. Australia and South Africa have alreadygiven their blessing.
The Belgium-based maker of Budweiser, Corona and StellaArtois wants to strengthen its presence in Latin America andAfrica to offset weaker markets such as the United States wherecraft brews and cocktails are gaining popularity at the expenseof beers. ($1 = 0.8976 euros) (Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; editing by Philip Blenkinsop)