Bud plight

25 October 2018 By Ed Cropley, Aimee Donnellan Follow @edwardcropley

The Bud owner halved its dividend to pay down a debt mountain from buying SABMiller. This should free up $4 bln annually, but it could take eight years to hit its leverage targets. Any more trouble in emerging markets will mean an even longer wait for clear heads.

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Anheuser-Busch InBev on Oct. 25 slashed its proposed dividend by half. The Belgium-based brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona said it will pay a dividend of 1.80 euros per share for the 2018 fiscal year, including a 0.8 percent interim amount, compared with 3.60 euros last year.

AB InBev, which paid about $100 billion to buy its nearest rival SABMiller in 2016, said it was accelerating debt reduction toward its target of having a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio of around 2.

Shares in AB InBev were down 7.7 percent at 66.73 euro by 0751 GMT on Oct. 25.

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