LONDON â€" Anheuser-Busch InBev on Thursday revised its $20.1 billion deal for Grupo Modelo, the Mexican maker of Corona beer, in an effort by the global beer giant to persuade U.S. antitrust authorities to let the deal proceed.
Under the revised terms, Anheuser-Busch InBev offered to sell the rights to Corona and other Grupo Modelo brands in the United States to Constellation Brands, the world’s largest wine company, for $2.9 billion.
In total, the deal would include the sale of a brewery close to the U.S.-Mexican border currently owned by Grupo Modelo to Constellation Brands, as well as the perpetual licensing rights to Grupo Modelo’s brands in the United States.
Constellation has already agreed to acquire a 50 percent stake in Crown Imports, a joint venture with Grupo Modelo, that it does not already own for $1.85 billion, as part of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s origins terms of its proposed takeover of the Meican brewer.
Anheuser-Busch InBev’s decision to sell CompañÃa Cervecera de Coahuila, the Mexican brewery that produces Corona, Corona Light and Modelo Especial, is an effort to satisfy U.S. regulators after the Justice Department last month sued to block the $20.1 billion deal.
U.S. authorities said that the proposed merger would increase Anheuser-Busch InBev’s control of the domestic U.S. beer market and enable it to raise prices. Grupo Modelo is the third-biggest beer company in the United States.
Anheuser-Busch InBev said the revised deal would give Constellation an independent brewing business, as well as lead Grupo Modelo to divest all of its American operations.
‘‘We believe this revised agreement addresses all of the concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice in its lawsuit, leaving no doubt about Constellation’s Crown beer division’s complete! independence and ability to compete,’’ Anheuser-Busch InBev said in a statement on Thursday.
Analysts said the revised deal, which caught some off guard, could provide the concessions that U.S. regulators were seeking.
‘‘The quick settlement is no doubt surprising, but also shows practicality from the Anheuser-Busch InBev side,’’ Pablo Zuanic, an analyst at Liberum Capital, wrote in a note to investors on Thursday.
Anheuser-Busch InBev shares rose more than 5 percent in morning trading on Thursday in Brussels.
The global brewer added that its proposed deal for Grupo Modelo was still subject to the Justice Department’s legal challenge, and that the new agreement with Constellation was dependent on the completion of the $20.1 billion acquisition.
The move by U.S. authorities to block the proposed merger is the first time in more than a decade that regulators have tried to slow down the consolidation in the global beer industry.
A series of takeovers have lefta small number of companies in control of many of the world’s leading beer brands, and have led Anheuser-Busch InBev to become the world’s leading brewing company. The company was created in 2008 through the merger of Anheuser-Busch and the Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev.
Anheuser-Busch InBev added on Thursday that it had increased its projections for annual cost savings from the Grupo Modelo deal by 66 percent, to $1 billion, from its original estimates when the deal was first announced last year. The terms of the original deal for Grupo Modelo remain unchanged, according to a company statement.
