Australia’s competition watchdog has for the second time delayed its decision on Anheuser-Busch InBev’s proposed takeover of SABMiller.

An initial decision date of April 14 was last week postponed to April 21, only for the ACCC to yesterday announce it has been delayed once again.

The watchdog said the delay was “at the request of the merger parties to allow them to provide more information”.

“A new expected decision date will be provided once the information is received,” it said.

A competition law expert last year told Australian Brews News that the deal was all but guaranteed safe passage, but two consecutive delays raise the prospect that itmay have hit a snag.

However, there were several cases in 2015 whereby the ACCC delayed its decision on a takeover proposal only to give it the green light once further information was received from the merger parties.

Asahi closes in on Peroni
Also this week, AB InBev announced it had accepted a binding offer from Asahi to acquire the Peroni, Grolsch and Meantime brand families from SABMiller.

The deal is conditional on the successful completion of AB InBev’s acquisition of SABMiller, which itself contains certain regulatory pre-conditions and conditions.

The European Commission must also approve Asahi as a purchaser of the SABMiller assets.