Metro-East News

Anheuser-Busch InBev to sell off SABMiller’s Eastern European brands

Anheuser-Busch InBev has announced it will sell off some of SABMiller’s eastern European brands to appease regulators and speed up the merger of the two beer giants.

Brands in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are for sale in deals that could be worth a combined $8 billion. The merger of the two brewers is worth $107 billion.

The European Commission — the antitrust arm of the European Union — is expected to announce its approval or rejection of the merger on May 24 unless it opens a deeper investigation into the plan. If it does that, approval could be delayed. Analyists say AB InBev offered the brands up for sale to avoid such an investigation.

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St. Louis is the 15th-most walkable metropolitan area in the country, according to the real estate news service Redfin.

A Redfin survey scored the 50 largest metros in the country and some of the usual suspects top the list: New York City got the top slot, San Francisco was No. 2 and Chicago took the No. 6 slot.

If St. Louis’s ranking isn’t so remarkable, its year-over-year change in score is: The metro scored a 60 last year but clocked a 64 this year. The four-point bump was tied for best in the country with Denver, Houston and Omaha.

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An Australian entrepreneur says he invented the mysterious digital currency bitcoin, which was introduced in 2009 by someone named Satoshi Nakamoto.

Turns out Nakamoto was a pseudonym for Craig Steven Wright.

Some media reports outed Wright as bitcoin’s creator as early as December, but he stayed silent until Monday. Some still doubt Wright’s claim, and even though Wright shared with news publications evidence he said would clearly point to him as bitcoin’s creator, he also said in a video clip posted by the BBC that “Some people will believe, some people won’t and to tell you the truth I don’t really care. I don’t want money, I don’t want fame, I don’t want adoration. I just want to be left alone.”

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Nissan is recalling 3.7 million vehicles, the bulk of which are equipped with airbags that might not work correctly during a crash.

Model year 2016-2017 Maxima, model year 2013-2016 Altima, NV200, LEAF and Sentra, model year 2013-2017 Pathfinder, model year 2014-2016 NV200 Taxi, Infiniti QX60 and Q50, model year 2014-2017 Rogue, model year 2015-2016 Murano, Chevrolet City Express and model year 2013 Infiniti JX35 vehicles are subject to the airbag recall.

An additional 622,000 model year 2013 to 2016 Sentra vehicles also will be recalled because of problems with their child restraint systems.

It’s been a bad couple years for Nissan: In 2013, the Japanese carmaker confirmed a problem with airbags in some of its models and recalled almost a million cars the following year. But some owners lodged complaints with the company even after fixes were made, prompting an investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that is expected to end soon with the announcement of the most recent recall.

Tobias Wall: 618-239-2501, @Wall_BND

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 9:35 AM with the headline "Anheuser-Busch InBev to sell off SABMiller’s Eastern European brands."

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