Anheuser-Busch InBev NV, the world’s biggest beer maker, agreed to pay $5.8 billion to buy back South Korea’s Oriental Brewery Co. Ltd. from KKR & Co. and Affinity Equity Partners Ltd.

AB InBev will fund the acquisition with internal resources, according to a statement from the companies distributed on PR Newswire. AB InBev will receive about $320 million in cash when the transaction is completed.

Leuven, Belgium-based AB InBev will regain a business it sold to KKR in 2009 for $1.8 billion in a bid to cut debt following InBev NV’s $52 billion takeover of Anheuser-Busch Cos. KKR subsequently sold 50 percent of the asset to Affinity. Oriental Brewery has become South Korea’s largest beer maker on the growth of its Cass brand, the statement said.

The deal values Oriental Brewery at about 11.6 times earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, compared with the average 10.1 times for 24 global brewery acquisitions over the past five years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Announced acquisitions in the brewery industry were worth about $22 billion in 2011 and $32 billion in 2012 before declining to $5.5 billion last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

AB InBev’s purchase would be the second takeover of an alcoholic beverage company this year after Japan’s Suntory Holdings Ltd. agreed to buy bourbon maker Beam Inc. for about $16 billion Jan. 13.

AB InBev’s right to buy back Oriental Brewery at pre-agreed terms this year was part of the 2009 agreement with KKR. The deal has an enterprise value of $5.8 billion and is expected to close in the first half of the year, according to the statement. It is subject to regulatory approval in South Korea.

AB InBev, created in the brewery world’s biggest merger, sells brands including Bud Light and Stella Artois. It’s grown to be the largest beer maker through a series of acquisitions, including taking control of Mexico’s Grupo Modelo for $20.1 billion, a deal that was announced in 2012 and completed last year.

Oriental Brewery sells brands in South Korea including Cass, OB Golden Lager and Cafri, according to KKR’s website. It also remained a partner with AB InBev and distributes Budweiser, Corona and Hoegaarden.

The beer maker’s market share in South Korea is about 60 percent, from about 40 percent in 2009, when AB InBev sold it, Lee Kyung Shin, an analyst at KB Investment & Securities Co., estimated.

Hite Jinro Co., which sells liquor, beer and bottled water, said in its third-quarter report last year that Oriental Brewery overtook it in market share in South Korea’s brewery market in 2011. (Bloomberg)