(Yicai Global) July 15 -- The world's biggest beer brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev has canned its USD9.8 billion listing of Budweiser Brewing Co. APAC after struggling to find investors willing to meet its share price demands.

The Leuven-based firm decided that current market conditions are not right, it said in a statement yesterday. It will get back all application fees -- including a 1 percent commission payment -- paid to the China Securities Regulatory Commission and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong.

AB InBev had initially hoped to obtain between HKD40 (USD5.1) and HKD47 a share in the listing, giving it a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.5 to 45 based on Budweiser APAC's USD1.4 billion profit last year.

It had planned to list the unit on July 19 and ultimately pushed for the upper limit of its price range, but institutional investors were unwilling to play ball, Securities Times cited an anonymous inside source as saying.

AB InBev sold some 13.3 million kiloliters of booze during the first quarter of this year, down 1 percent, according to its financial report for the period. Sales in the Asia-Pacific region fell nearly 1.3 percent to 2.4 million kiloliters, though China revenue surged 7.8 percent despite a 1.1 percent slide in sales. The company has almost USD103 billion in debts after an expansion last year.

Editor: James Boynton