Brewing giant Lion toppled as king of Australia's beer jungle Liquor Simon Evans Kirin-owned dairy and drinks group Lion will still have bragging rights in the front bar for the next few months, but will then reluctantly hand over its crown in Australia's $14 billion beer market following an Australian Competition and Consumer Commission ruling. 
Australia's No.1 imported beer, Corona, which represents about 6per cent of the total beer market in Australia, will shift later this year from being distributed by Lion to Australia's other big brewer, CUB, which is owned by SABMiller.
But the transition will still take a few months because it requires other competition regulators around the world to approve a $145billion global mega-merger where SABMiller itself is about to be swallowed, and for financial settlement to take place in that deal.
The competition regulator on Thursday officially announced it had given the green light to the local leg of the mega-merger between Anheuser-Busch InBev and SABMiller, the owner of Victoria Bitter and Carlton Draught, with the transfer of Corona easing any niggling concerns.
The early transfer was speculated about in the Australian Financial Review's Street Talk column.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said he wouldn't oppose the global acquisition because of changes in the local market.
It has been comforted by the looming shift of Corona and other brands that will come out of the Lion portfolio.
This will shrink Lion's local market share from 48 per cent to about 40 per cent.
"The ACCC considers that the proposed acquisition is unlikely to result in higher beer prices for consumers," Mr Sims said.
The shift of the Corona brand will mark a sort of homecoming for CUB and its former parent Foster's, which was bought out by SABMiller for $12.3 billion in late 2011. That buyout triggered a change of control clause for the rights to sell Corona in Australia which had been held by Foster's for 22 years. CUB's market share won't shrink by the full 8 per cent market share that Lion is letting go of though, because of another side transaction globally where Japanese brewer Asahi is buying brands including Peroni and Grolsch as part of a deal to appease competition regulators in the northern hemisphere.
The merged ABInBev and SABMiller business will have about 45per cent of the Australian market, up from 39 per cent currently.
On a global level, the enlarged entity will have substantial power, with a portfolio representing one third of all beers sold around the world.