Brussels, Jan 23 - Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's biggest brewer, sold down its stake in Chinese brewer Tsingtao on Friday to help pay for last year's Anheuser acquisition with Japan's Asahi Breweries paying $667 million for a 19.9 percent stake.
InBev bought Anheuser for $52 billion in cash last November and has been looking at disposals to cut its debt. Anheuser's near 27 percent stake in Tsingtao was seen by analysts as likely to be sold off along with other assets.
ABInBev will maintain a 7 percent stake in Tsingtao.
The Belgium-based brewer of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Beck's is looking to pay down a massive $45 billion loan it took out to buy Anheuser and analysts say it may also look to sell off Anheuser's U.S. theme parks and packaging operations, and in addition InBev's Korean and German beer businesses.
ABInBev shares were off 0.2 percent at 17.50 euros by 1055 GMT, but are still well above the five-year low of 9.96 euros hit last November when worries about how the brewer would pay for Anheuser were at their height.