1023 GMT - Asahi's planned acquisition of Diageo assets in Africa could serve as a learning experience in emerging markets for the brewer, which has historically been focused on developed markets, says Bernstein's Euan McLeish. But this is unlikely to be the start of a buying spree, the senior analyst says. Asahi has been clear that it's focused on getting gearing back down to 2.5X-3X times net debt-Ebitda as quickly as possible. And with the deal likely to close 2H 2026, it'll probably take until 2028 before gearing is back down. "And then we'll see what the environment looks like," McLeish says. One of the challenges with M&A is that there aren't many non-aligned assets around.EMs in particular, most are owned by other global brewers, and it's quite unusual for them to be selling, so it's not like there's hundreds of deals out there to be done, he says. (fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 18, 2025 05:23 ET (10:23 GMT)

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