Camden Town to become another AB InBev brand

Britain's craft beer market was being watered down further on Monday, with the announcement that one of London's most popular craft breweries was being snapped up by Belgian beer behemoth Anehuser-Busch InBev.

In an announcement, Camden Town Brewery described the deal as a 'partnership', despite the fact AB InBev would become the sole owner of the craft brewer.

AB InBev became the world's largest brewer when it was formed in 2008, through a merger between InBev and Anheuser-Busch, and currently held a 25% market share.

Camden Town Brewery began in 2010 with three staff, however now employs 95 and sold 12m pints in the year to date - up from 7.6m in 2014.

Earlier in 2015, it raised more than £2.5m through a crowdfunding initiative in a bid to expand and return its manufacturing operation to the UK. It was forced to outsource some operations to Belgium after sales exploded in 2014.

It let go of 5.37% of its equity as part of that crowdfunding initiative. Also in 2015, it sold a 20% stake to a Belgian manufacturing family.

Founder Jasper Cuppaidge remained the biggest shareholder with 40% of the business, and with his wife, father-in-law and three friends controlled 75% of Camden Town.

"Opportunities like this come rarely. We believe we must have the ambition to grab this opportunity and turn Camden Town Brewery, and the quality it stands for, from being an outstanding London brewer to being a world famous one," said Cuppaidge.

"Camden Town is a creative business with a great range of brands that will complement our existing portfolio. We will support their ambitious plans for the future, using our expertise and global distribution network to help them get their great beer to more people," said AB InBev's Ian Newell.

Not everyone was celebrating the deal, however, with craft beer group Brewdog saying it would no longer stock Camden Town in its bars as it had a policy of not stocking drinks made by AB InBev.

It wasn't the first London craft beer deal to be struck in 2015, either. In May, British brewing giant SABMiller swallowed Meantime Brewery.

Both Camden Town and Meantime would come under the same umbrella once a £17bn merger between AB InBev and SABMiller - announced in November - is complete, although AB InBev indicated it might spin off Meantime should the merger go ahead.

The deal between Camden Town and AB InBev was expected to close on or before 7 January 2016, at which point Camden Town would become a wholly-owned subsidiary of AB InBev. Neither firm would be drawn on the terms of the deal.