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Kenya’s High Court has allowed regulatory reviews to proceed for Diageo’s $2.3 billion sale of its majority stake in East African Breweries Limited (EABL) to Asahi Group Holdings.

In a ruling delivered on Friday (9 January), Justice Bahati Mwamuye directed that regulatory approvals and other preliminary steps linked to the transaction may proceed uninterrupted, even as the court considers an application seeking to block the deal.

However, the court issued a temporary preservation order restraining the final completion of the sale until Tuesday, 20 January, when the matter will be mentioned for further directions.

The case was filed by Kenyan beer distributor Bia Tosha Distributors, which is seeking to halt the transaction over unresolved litigation dating back to 2016. The distributor argues that the long-running dispute should be resolved before Diageo exits its shareholding in EABL.

In a statement, EABL said the court had recognised the importance of allowing statutory and regulatory processes to continue, noting that global transactions of this scale typically require months of regulatory engagement. The brewer added that the interim order would not affect the overall transaction timeline.

“We welcome the court’s decision to allow the regulatory phases of this transaction to continue,” EABL said. The company reiterated that the underlying dispute is a legacy commercial matter relating to local distribution routes and “has no factual or legal connection to the shareholding of our parent company.”

Diageo announced in December that it had agreed to sell its 65% stake in EABL to Asahi as part of a broader strategy to dispose of non-core assets, reduce debt, and offset pressures from US tariffs and changing consumer demand patterns.

Despite the court action, deal parties have maintained that they expect the transaction to be completed in the second half of the year, subject to regulatory approvals across multiple jurisdictions.

EABL, which operates breweries and beverage businesses across Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, remains one of East Africa’s largest alcohol producers.

The proposed acquisition would mark a significant expansion of Asahi’s footprint in Africa’s beer and spirits market.