Altria Group Plans to Sell Part of Anheuser-Busch Stake

By Ben Glickman

Altria Group plans to sell 18%, or over $2 billion worth, of its large stake in Anheuser-Busch InBev in a secondary offering as it looks to return more cash to shareholders.

Altria currently holds about 10% of Anheuser-Busch, or 197 million shares. The company said it would use the proceeds from selling shares for buying back its own common stock.

The tobacco company said Wednesday it planned to sell 35 million shares altogether in the global secondary offering. The underwriters will also have the option to purchase 5.25 million additional Anheuser-Busch shares. Altria's 35 million-share sale would be worth about $2.26 billion at Anheuser-Busch stock's Wednesday closing price of $64.55.

Anheuser-Busch agreed to buy back $200 million worth of ordinary shares directly from Altria, conditional on the completion of the offering.

Altria Chief Executive Billy Gifford said the company regularly reviews its investment in Anheuser-Busch.

"We believe this is an opportunistic transaction that realizes a portion of the substantial return on our long-term investment," said Gifford.

Altria said it the global secondary offering would include an offering of American depositary shares of Anheuser-Busch, a public offering of the company's ordinary shares in the U.S., a private placement of Anheuser-Busch shares in the U.K. and Europe and an offering of ordinary shares in other countries outside the U.S.

Altria in February said its board had approved a new $1 billion stock-buyback program.

Write to Ben Glickman at ben.glickman@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications

This item was corrected at 5:42 p.m. ET to show that Altria Group currently holds about 10% of Anheuser-Busch. An earlier versionm incorrectly said Altria currently holds about 10% of itself.

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March 13, 2024 17:10 ET (21:10 GMT)

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