US buyout firm KKR has emerged the clear favourite to acquire Oriental Brewery, the South Korean brewer owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev. KKR has been named preferred bidder by AB InBev, after it raised its bid to about $1.9bn, far above that of MBK Partners, a Korean-based buyout firm. KKR also appears to have dealt a knock-out blow to Lotte Group, the South Korean retail conglomerate that was seen as frontrunner to acquire Oriental.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 5:00 and is filed under Capital markets, M&A, Private equity. Tagged with AB InBev, kkr, Lotte, Oriental Brewery. Edit this entry.