The hope was that the company's Asian subsidiary would position it to be the premium beer leader in China and the company's goal was to raise as much as $9.8 billion for a total valuation of $64 billion. But AB InBev was instead forced to shelve the IPO after tepid investor interest in Hong Kong.

The setback can be blamed on a couple of things, according to Bloomberg: first, younger consumers are moving away from traditional beers and towards craft cocktails. Also, competition in China is robust, especially after Heineken signed a blockbuster deal with a state owned company. This meant the appetite for Budweiser's IPO was very weak.

Jefferies' analyst Ed Mundy told Bloomberg Television on July 12 said: "We do feel that there are better places to be invested within beer, such as Carlsberg or Heineken."