AB InBev is to sell two of its new brands, gained with its acquisition of SAB Miller, to tackle fears of consolidation of ownership in Europe.

It is planning to offload Grolsch and Peroni, but with likely bidders including Heineken and Molson Coors, the disposal still leaves concerns of too much concentration of ownership of big beer names.

John Colley, of Warwick Business School, a former chief executive of a FTSE 100 company who researches large takeovers, told Beer Today that this could mean higher prices for the consumer.

AB InBevHe said: “As big brands progressively dominate distribution, we will see further progress of highly individual, often localised, craft brands. These are developing a strong following in the UK and USA.

“While they lack the scale economies and sheer marketing power of the big brands, they appeal to individuality and offer a wide variety of tastes. The big brewers are trying to acquire some for their own craft offering to participate in what beer market growth there is. However, high costs and many fragmented brands is not their business.

“As competition authorities start to become interested when combined market shares exceed 25%, there may be many more disposals to follow. This will occur in a number of European markets, and market share in China will exceed 40%. Competition authorities will be carefully examining the deal there.”

Prof Colley added: “Each disposal drives value out of the original deal as sales are normally at a lower price than the original SABMiller takeover price. Research tells us that in over half of all takeovers, shareholder value is destroyed and the vast majority fail to deliver expected benefits. Further disposals will make this trend more likely for AB InBev’s shareholders.”