Seoul, April 28 - Private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co is in exclusive talks with Anheuser-Busch InBev ( to acquire South Korea's Oriental Brewery, a spokesman for KKR confirmed on Tuesday.
"We are in an exclusive engagement to negotiate with InBev over OB," Peter McKillop, director of global communications at KKR, told Reuters by telephone.
McKillop declined to provide further details on the pricing or timeline of the possible purchase.
An official at OB, South Korea's second-largest beer maker, had told Reuters on Monday that InBev had picked KKR as a preferred buyer, but declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Also on Monday, online news outlet MoneyToday cited an industry source as saying KKR had raised its bid for OB to more than $1.9 billion and accepted most of InBev's demands, trumping rival bids from Affinity Equity Partners and MBK Partners.
Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest brewer, is looking to sell off non-core assets and repay debt.
Shares in Hite Brewery South Korea's top brewer, rose 0.63 percent to 161,000 won, outperforming the wider market's 0.66 percent drop.
"The move is a positive for Hite's outlook, because the marketing competition could have been huge if Lotte had gotten the deal," said Lee Kyung-min, an analyst at HI Investment & Securities.
South Korean retail giant Lotte Group was widely considered the front-runner to buy OB, but said last week it had not handed in a final offer.
"But it's not impossible for Lotte to return to the deal, as some investors are still speculating," Lee said.
With Goldman Sachs as adviser, KKR has JPMorgan, Standard Chartered and HSBC among its backers, as well as Calyon, ING Bank, Natixis and Nomura (Reuters Basis Point reported earlier.
JPMorgan (JPM.N) and Deutsche Bank are running the OB sale.