China Resources Beer has agreed to buy SABMiller’s 49% stake in the two brewing firms’ CR Snow venture for US$1.6 billion, Reuters reported. The purchase of CR Snow, which produces the world’s top-selling beer by volume, clears another regulatory hurdle from the path of Anheuser-Busch InBev as it pushes forward with a US$100 billion-plus takeover of SABMiller. “We think that the 49% stake could have attracted a higher price if offered to other brewers on the open market, but assume that ABI’s negotiations with the Chinese regulators … ended up precluding this course of action,” said analysts at financial services firm Canaccord Genuity.