The Belgium beer monster thinks it has a few good ideas. First, why does a beer company need a theme park? Excellent question. (We didn’t even know the maker of Budweiser had a theme park, but that raises all sorts of amusing possibilities...) And while beer does require beer cans, can’t that be outsourced? Perhaps it’s reason enough to shed Anheuser-Busch’s beer-can unit. In any case, by the time this merger’s through, we may be seeing a very different company materialize.

InBev NV may raise as much as $4.6 billion by selling Anheuser-Busch Cos.' theme-park and beer-can divisions to help pay off debt for its purchase of the U.S. brewer.

InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, may get $2.9 billion for the theme parks and $1.7 billion for divisions that recycle beer containers and make cans and bottles, said Sachin Shah, a merger analyst at ICAP Securities Ltd. in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Selling the units will get Anheuser-Busch out of peripheral businesses and help pay for the Belgian company's $52 billion all-cash takeover of the St. Louis-based brewer. InBev is financing the deal, which split Anheuser's founding family, with $45 billion of debt and a stock sale. Standard & Poor's yesterday said InBev is doubling its "historic" debt levels.

"InBev is looking to be in the beer business and not necessarily in the family entertainment business," Shah said. "One thing InBev has stated throughout this process is a desire to add working dollars back."

InBev, led by Chief Executive Officer Carlos Brito, declined 0.25 euros, or 0.6 percent, to 42.75 euros at 9:13 a.m. in Brussels trading. Anheuser-Busch gained 37 cents to $66.87 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading yesterday, 27 percent higher than when reports of a possible bid surfaced in May.

The Belgian company won over Anheuser and the Busch family after sweetening its bid following a month of resistance.

Biggest Brewer

"InBev's decision will be based on a diligent review of the strategic and financial consequences of any divestment, with the goal of creating the best opportunities and value for all constituents," spokeswoman Gwendoline Ornigg said by e-mail.

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