JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - AB InBev, the world's biggest brewer, will start building a 2 million hectolitre a year brewery in Mozambique in the second half of next year, the company's Africa head said on Tuesday.
"We're not disclosing the value of the investment at this point," said Ricardo Tadeu, AB InBev Africa zone president, at a media briefing in Johannesburg.
The company paid roughly $100 billion to buy rival SABMiller in 2016, giving it a substantial presence on the continent of more than a billion people.
The Mozambique investment will look to fend off competition from rival Heineken <HEIN.AS>, which is the middle of building $100 million brewery in the southern African country.
AB InBev already brews the 2M and Laurentina brands in Mozambique in another brewery.
Substantial gas reserves discovered off Mozambique's Indian Ocean coastline more than a decade ago were set to jumpstart its economy but progress in setting up the infrastructure to tap them has been glacial, slowing the pace of investment in many sectors.
(Reporting by Joe Bavier; Writing by Tiisetso Motsoeneng; editing by David Evans)
