Anheuser-Busch InBev plans to buy back a share of its U.S. metal packaging operations just over five years after selling it to a collection of investors.
Private equity firm Apollo Global Management and other investors bought the 49.9% minority stake in the metal container plants for $3 billion in late 2020, but the deal included an option for the Budweiser and Michelob Ultra brewer to reacquire that share. AB InBev announced Tuesday that it had exercised that option for $3 billion.
The U.S. metal container business includes seven factories across six states. Reuters noted that the move follows a jump in aluminum prices linked to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
The metal plants, AB InBev officials said, “are a strategic component of our business, ensuring quality, cost efficiency, speed of innovation and supply security for our brands, while providing industry-leading manufacturing jobs and driving economic growth in communities across the U.S.”
