Differing from last round's IPO attempt in July 2019, Budweiser Brewing Company APAC (01876) has already agreed to divest its Australian breweries to Asahi Group for US$11.3bn, equivalent to 14.9x FY2018 normalised EBITDA, DBS Group Research cited AB InBev's press release noted.
Currently, Bud APAC's principal markets include Asia Pacific East (including Japan, South Korea and New Zealand) and Asia Pacific West (including China, India, Vietnam and export elsewhere in Asia Pacific).
Compared to the mature Australian markets (EBITDA margin of 44% in FY2018 with 1.7% revenue growth), Bud APAC's current markets have shown better growth potential as evidenced by organic sales growth of 4.3% and 7.3% in APAC East and APAC West, respectively, in 1H.
Hence, DBS recommended that investors subscribe the shares, which are priced at 17-19x FY2020 EV/EBITDA. It said the premium is justified by market leadership, better
profitability and M&A potential in APAC.