Already known for its drastic cost-cutting measures, the merged beverage giant Aneuser Busch InBev is to go ahead with ''at least'' $7 billion in asset disposals and cut costs more quickly than expected as it tries to de-leverage its balance sheet, which carries $56.5 billion) in debt.

The group became the world's biggest brewer, but also the most highly leveraged, following InBev's $52 billion purchase of Anheuser Busch, in the biggest corporate takeover worldwide last year (See: InBev completes Anheuser Busch acquisition). This ended the US company's roughly 150 years of independence as a premier American brewer.

Announcing its financial results on Thursday, it said synergies from the acquisition would be higher than expected, reaching $2.25 billion instead of the $1.5 billion originally expected, as it reported a 5.2 per cent rise in group underlying sales growth for 2008.

AB InBev also announced that Carlos Brito, its chief executive, and most of its top management would not receive bonuses this year because they missed their financial targets in 2008.

''Management incentives must be totally aligned with shareholders' interests,'' the brewer said, adding management in future would be measured on how well they met targets linked to the company's net debt to earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBIDTA) ratio.

The brewer of Stella Artois, Beck's and now Budweiser did not comment on its asset disposals. Although it only needs to raise $2.8 billion in cash in the short term to pay down the remainder of a bridging loan by November, it reiterated that it would dispose of at least $7 billion in assets.

It has already sold a 20 per cent stake in Chinese brewer Tsingtao to Japan's Asahi this year, raising $667 million, and raised another $100 million from selling the US brewing and distribution business of Labatt, its Canadian beer brand (See: AB InBev sells Labatt unit to KPS Capital to meet US regulatory norms).

Analysts say the brewer could pay the remainder of the bridging loan from its free cash flow, which will rise following the brewer's decision to release $500 million in working capital from the former Anheuser Busch's operation and reduce capital expenditure by $1 billion.

The group has already started a sale process for other assets, including its Oriental brewery in South Korea. Other likely disposals include its American theme park business, which includes SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, and Aquatica. It may also sell its German beer business, which includes the Beck's brand.

AB InBev said that the merger last year would generate bigger benefits than expected, even as it reported a 41 per cent drop in 2008 profit.

Only months since the deal was closed, management said it was now confident enough to raise its forecast of the cost savings it expected the merger to generate to $2.25 billion from 1.5 billion dollars previously.

While the company had high hopes the merger will pay off handsomely, costs related to financing the deal helped push net profit down to $1.617 billion in 2008. Sales, however, showed an 11.6 per cent increase over the previous year.

"Since closing the transaction on 18 November 2008, the integration process has progressed quickly, delivering $250 million dollars of synergies in 2008," the company said.

Beer sales volumes fell 1.8 per cent in the fourth quarter, leaving full year volumes flat, while input costs rose 8.3 per cent over the 12 months.

In the UK, sales volumes fell by 2.7 per cent over the year and 3.4 per cent in the final quarter despite the successful launch of Stella Artois and double-digit sales growth from Beck's Pils and Beck's Vier. The brewer's share of the UK market grew 0.4 per cent. 

 Looking ahead, it said that it expected its margins to expand this year while costs are kept in check.