CR Beer launches $1.2b rights issue for JV buyout

China Resources Beer CR Beer launched a HK$9.5 billion $1.2 billion rights issue on Wednesday, the biggest in Hong Kong for more than two years, to part-fund the buyout of its SABMiller joint venture China Resources Snow Breweries CR Snow.

The long-anticipated transaction for the outstanding 49% stake that it doesn't already own follows the merger announcement late last year of global brewing giants Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, which promises to create a company with almost a third of the world’s beer market, naturally giving rise to anti-trust concerns. 

The beer brewing unit of state-owned China...