InBev plans to sell Bud parks

Stella Artois brewer InBev is looking to raise as much as $2.9 billion (£1.5 billion) by selling theme parks owned by new acquisition Anheuser-Busch.

It may also sell the beer cans division for $1.7 billion, lifting the total proceeds to $4.6 billion, as it looks to take Anheuser-Busch out of peripheral businesses. That would help InBev pay for its $52 billion all-cash takeover of the US maker of Budweiser.

Anheuser-Busch, which owns Busch Gardens and Sea World, opened its first theme park in Tampa, Florida, in 1959. It now runs 10 sites in the US and has four planned for Dubai.

"InBev is looking to be in the beer business and not necessarily the family entertainment business," said Sachin Shah at Icap Securities in New Jersey.

InBev yesterday agreed to buy Anheuser-Busch for $70 a share to make it the world's largest brewer. The combined company, to be called Anheuser-Busch InBev, will have annual revenues of more than $36 billion.